CM presses for classes from coming session at Mohali medical college

DIRECTS CHIEF SECRETARY TO ENSURE THAT THINGS ARE IN PLACE BEFORE MCI INSPECTION IN FEB

CHANDIGARH: To ensure that classes at the newly announced medical college in Mohali start from the coming session, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh to fasttrack the case. This is the fourth government medical college in Punjab.

In the January 21 orders, the CM has instructed the chief secretary to review the project to ensure that formalities of the college are completed before the next inspection of the Medical Council of India (MCI), which is scheduled in February.

The CM’S instructions came after health minister Brahm Mohindra took up the issue with him and blamed the state finance department for creating delay in providing sanctions for the college owing to “routine observations”.

Mohindra wrote the letter to the CM on January 10 after Hindustan Times highlighted how the delay caused by the finance department in providing sanctions could hamper the start of MBBS classes in the college announced by the Amarinder government in its first budget.

The sanctions include creation of 168 posts of faculty and 826 posts of paramedics and a few financial provisions, which are pending since August last year.

“The tenders for beds and classrooms stand awarded, but the construction work has hit the roadblock due to non-sanction of posts and funds,” the letter by the health minister to the CM reads.

This medical college was sanctioned in 2014-15 by the Union government but was delayed as the previous SADBJP government could not prepare a detailed project report (DPR).

The Amarinder government submitted the DPR in January 2018 after which the Union government released ₹100 crore out of its total share of ₹113 crore for the project. The Punjab government would share 40% of the total cost of the project (₹76 crore) while the Centre would contribute the remaining 60%.

Though the CM had announced to start the MBBS classes from the coming session, the MCI team that visited the college in November last year rejected it citing lack of infrastructure and non-sanction of posts.

In its proposal to the MCI, the Punjab medical education department sought permission for 100 MBBS seats for the first year.

The college is to come up at the Mohali civil hospital, which the health department claims, already has full-fledged infrastructure.

The panchayat of Jujhar Nagar village situated next to the civil hospital has already donated 10 acres for the medical college.

The government has also ordered to vacate the Punjab Health System Corporation hostel situated next to the civil hospital for the college.