Telangana is likely to get more post-graduate (PG) medical seats this year in addition to the 250 it got last year, thanks to Centre’s policy relaxing the conditions.
Director of Medical Education K. Ramesh Reddy said proposals to sanction 45 to 50 seats were sent to the Medical Council of India (MCI) to enhance the seats in different departments.
If the MCI sanctions the seats in time for counselling of next batch of admissions in April, the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences would take up the task, said vice-chancellor B. Karunakar Reddy.
The sanction of PG medical seats is directly linked to the faculty positions in various teaching hospitals, as three seats are allotted for every professor or additional professor and one seat for an associate professor. In September last year, the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) promoted 35 assistant professors to associate professors and 10 associate professors to additional professors. NIMS, which got 44 more seats last year, has again applied for increase in seats this time.
The State has put up a total of 1,475 PG seats in government and private medical colleges, including NIMS which is a deemed university offering specialised courses. Out of 700 seats in private sector, the government quota was 50%. In government colleges, seats can only be allotted to Osmania, Gandhi and Kakatiya colleges as the others at Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Siddipet and Adilabad did not qualify to launch the courses. The first batch of MBBS students are yet to graduate in these institutions.
The State government has also requested the MCI to sanction 150 MBBS seats for the government college at Siddipet. An MCI team recently inspected the college buildings and pointed out certain shortcomings, which the government has were rectified. It has also sent proposals for sanction of medical colleges at Nalgonda and Suryapet, with an intake of 150 MBBS seats each.
