india

Updated: Jun 10, 2014 00:57 IST

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has scrapped an astonishing 32% of MBBS seats nationwide in its attempt to safeguard the quality of medical education. As a result, competition for the seats left will now be more cut-throat than ever before.

The MCI withdrew permission for 15,890 of the 49,950 MBBS seats nationwide. It cited failure of several colleges to arrange for minimum infrastructure required for ensuring proper education and training to future doctors.

“In order to run a medical college, one has to meet the minimum requirements and regulation set by the MCI,” president of MCI, Dr Jaishreeben Mehta told HT.

The biggest loser was Andhra Pradesh that had 2,100 seats scrapped from its colleges, followed by Maharashtra (1,675), Karnataka (1,650), Tamil Nadu (1,450), UP (1,400) and Bengal (1,200).

But there is still hope for the axed colleges. “June 15 is the cut-off date to send their compliance report to MCI. If we find that they have been able to meet our requirements, we might reconsider on a case-to-case basis,” said Mehta.

It is not yet known if MBBS seats have been scrapped from private colleges.

In 2011, the MCI in its vision document for 2031, had said the country needed to add 10,000 MBBS seats every year. The UPA 2 government added 10,000 seats in the next three years but MCI officials argued that most of these seats were added to colleges that lacked proper facilities.