Madurai Medical College caught in the eye of an election storm
Come election season, the students and the staff of Madurai Medical College (MMC) are the worried lot. It is the only medical college in Tamil Nadu that becomes a strongroom/ counting centre.
While the students of other counting centres are away on long summer vacation, medical students continue to attend classes and appear for exams. It is estimated to impact at least 2,110 medical and paramedical students, including 400 students from other colleges, who will be appearing for examinations in April and May.
Started in 1954, the MMC has served as a counting centre for all elections since 1998. This year too, the college is a counting centre for Madurai Lok Sabha constituency.
This time, there would be a huge gap of 47 days between the dates of polling and counting in Tamil
Nadu, during which the college would be under the control of the Election Commission of India, said Kumaran, a Professor at the college.
Recently, six members of the student council moved the court pleading for relief.
Suganthi, another Professor, charged: “Authorities hold a cursory inspection and fix the counting centre based on the list of the previous election’s counting venue. The college is picked only owing to its proximity to the Collectorate. They are reluctant to choose any other bigger educational institution nearby. Thousands of students are put to hardship.”
When the old academic block was taken over, it mainly affected the first, second and the third year MBBS and paramedical students, added Dr. Kumaran. Dhruv, one of the student petitioners, said the first year students were affected the most.
Ashwin, a house surgeon, complained that anatomy dissection could not be taught effectively as the anatomy hall was unavailable during the 2019 LS elections.
“A fully functional college which now admits 250 MBBS students a year is crippled. It is impractical to conduct classes regularly on a fullypacked campus,” Dr. Suganthi said.
Restricted access to the district’s only government pathology lab posed a problem in obtaining crucial diagnostic test results of patients of Government Rajaji Hospital, Dr. Kumaran said.
He said the structure of the heritage building was altered during every election. Cracks developed, water and drainage lines were damaged.
In its order dated March 22, the Madras High Court observed that Madurai was not a small city and the authorities could consider other venues as counting centres.
Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo was unavailable for comment.
(Names of students and professors have been changed on request)