Only 920 MBBS Seats Added in 5 Years: RTI

According to an RTI petition filed by an activist, only 920 MBBS seats were added in government medical colleges in the last five years. The government approved 10,000 MBBS seats in government medical colleges across the country, and many states have failed to add additional seats in MBBS course. As a result, these colleges were successful in adding only 920 MBBS seats in government medical colleges.

36 medical colleges in Odisha, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat received approval for adding 2,615 seats in MBBS. For the execution of this, a sum of Rs. 685 crore was provided to these twelve states (2015-18).

Total No. of MBBS Seats Added in Government Medical Colleges in Last Five Years

• The RTI further reveals the total number of seats added in the colleges of each state against the number that was approved.
• For instance, Rajasthan added only 50 seats out of 350 approved seats in MBBS course.
• On the other hand, only 50 seats were added in government medical colleges across Andhra Pradesh out of 150 approved seats.
• Karnataka increased a total of 350 seats while 550 seats were approved for it.
• Not even a single seat was added in the states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.
• In Madhya Pradesh, 450 seats were to be added for which Rs. 108 crores were sanctioned by the government.
• Similarly, Rs. 82 crores were released for the addition of 345 seats in Tamil Nadu, but the number remains the same.
• Gujarat, Odisha and Punjab have increased the number of seats by 170, 200 and 100 respectively.

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The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare proposed a scheme for upgrading the government medical colleges and adding more seats for MBBS. The proposal held that the scheme would be sponsored by the Centre, and it was approved by a cabinet committee of the United Public Alliance (UPA) government in 2014. It was declared that a sum of Rs. 10,000 crores would be provided for the implementation of this scheme.

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The cabinet committee said that a total of Rs. 1.20 crores are required for creating one MBBS seat. In 2018, the proposal for the addition of 10,000 undergraduate seats and 8,058 postgraduate seats by the year 2020-21 was also approved by the cabinet.

The RTI activist expressed his concern about the poor ratio of doctor-patient in India. He further said that the seats of government medical colleges should be increased as private medical colleges are quite expensive and cannot be afforded easily. Also, the government should see to the implementation of schemes that it keeps releasing.