Med colleges offer PG degree with no hospital
June 20, 2009: The Times of India
New Delhi: The state of affairs pertaining to private medical and dental colleges is getting murkier. Close on the heels of the capitation fee scam in medical colleges of TN, SC on Friday stumbled upon another violation of rules in permitting private dental colleges to be attached to government hospitals for practicals of PG students.
Counsel for Dental Council of India Gaurav Sharma opposed grant of permission to Surendra Dental College and Research Institute to admit students for PG courses on the ground that it had no valid tie-up with a hospital. Since PG courses were more practical-oriented than classroom based, non-attachment to a hospital would jeopardise the standard of education, he said. To counter this, the college at Sri Ganganagar produced a letter dated May 26, 2009, from health department of Rajasthan allowing it to be attached to the government hospital in the town “till 2012-13 academic session or till construction of its own hospital¶. Sharma pointed out that another private college — Maharaja Ganga Singh Dental College, Sri Ganganagar — was permitted by the state government to be attached to the same government hospital. “In the larger public interest, it is not appropriate to attach two dental colleges for the purpose of clinical training with a government hospital as the same would definitely deteriorate the standards of dental education,¶ DCI said.
The Bench, returning the letter to the college’s counsel, senior advocate P S Narasimha, said, “Mr Narasimha, we won’t pass any order. You see the worth of this letter. It appears as if it is just taken out of the minister’s pocket.¶ The letter, in possession of TOI, was written by a deputy secretary to Rajasthan government and starts with “I’m directed to write…¶ and ends by forwarding a copy of it to the private secretary of the health minister. The college, through counsel Bina Madhavan, pointed out that the college satisfied the regulations by being attached to a hospital. It assailed decision of DCI not to grant permission to it to admit students for the academic year 2009-10, for which it had already appointed teaching staff.
The Bench refused to accede to the college’s request for an inspection of the institute by DCI and give its report to the Centre for permission to start PG courses. The court issued notice to the Centre, which sought four weeks time to file a reply. It ordered the matter to be listed two weeks after the Centre has filed its reply.
Contempt notice to Punjab college principal
Forget private institutions, the bunglings in admissions to even government medical and dental colleges under the elite all-India quota PG seats continue to baffle SC. A Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam learnt on Friday that its clear direction to admit a student, Ruchika Arora, has fallen on deaf ears. After the first round of counselling, Arora was allotted a PG seat in Periodontia at Government Dental College, Amritsar. After the second round of counselling, she was given the option by DGHS to join the same course at Faculty of Dental Sciences, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow. The Bench had directed the Centre to “take effective steps and ensure¶ her admission. The Bench was told by Arora’s counsel that the student had been denied admission as the principal stated that all-India quota seats had been filled. Before issuing contempt notice to the principal, the Bench gave vent to its anguish over the manner in which admissions under the all-India quota were being carried out.
