Unaided Medical, Dental Colleges are under Scanner

The Maharashtra State government had put unaided medical, dental colleges under scanner for alleged regularities in institute level admissions effected after the first two rounds of counseling doe seat allotment for the academic year 2012-13.

The Director of Medical Education & Research (DMER) assigned a three separate committee to look into the complaints of irregularities made by the students and parents are likely to submit their reports to the government by Dec 14, 2012.

These inquiry panels, headed by the deans of B J and government medical colleges in pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur, were constituted after the Supreme Court mandated Pravesh Niyantran Samiti decided on Nov 8 to launch a probe on complaints.

The which complaints which are facing the irregularities belong to the Association of Managements of Private Unaided Medical and Dental colleges (AMPUMDC), which conducts a parallel 'Asso-CET' for admissions to its member institutions. The association have 970 medical and 1,530 dental seats at 9 medical and 19 dental colleges across the state.

On Sept 28, the Samiti declared that all medical and dental admissions done at institute level after the second round under the Asso-CET, shall be provisional and subject to final approval by the Samiti. The inquiry panels' reports will be placed before the samiti for a final call on the status of post round II admissions.

"The inquiry panel have been given 15 days time to complete their probe. We are expecting their reports in the next time to four days," Samiti office secretary and IAS officer P E Gaikwad told. Gaikwad preferred not to make any comment on the number of seats that are now under the scanner as part of the inquiry.

As per the judgment issued by the Supreme Court on May 08, 2012, relating to Priya Gupta V state of Chhattisgarh and others, the cut-off date for admission to all health science courses is Sept 30.

The AMPUMDC, president and former state minister Kamal Kishore Kadam said, "The prevailing situation could have been avoided had the Samiti taken a swift cal on the complaints by students and parents before the Sept 30 cut-off date for admissions set by the apex court. The Supreme Court has been quite clear in its May 8 judgment that only the first two rounds are to be conducted in a centralized manner, while the remaining admissions are to be done at institute level,"

"The concerned college managements will move the court in the event of any adverse finding by the inquiry panels assigned by the DMER. One has to also consider that all colleges are bound to fax their list of admitted students as on Sept 30 to the concerned regulatory councils like Medical Council of India and the same are recognized by the latter. The Samiti ought to have taken a call on the complaints before Sept 30."

However, Samiti office secretary Gaikwad said the Samiti kept receiving complaints by Sept 30 and several complaints were received even after the cut-off date.