CM asks Modi to create additional seats in private colleges for Ukraine medicos

CHENNAI: A day after the Centre told the Supreme Court that medical students who returned from Ukraine cannot be accommodated in Indian colleges due to lack of provisions under the law, Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urging him to reconsider the decision.

Stalin urged the Centre to accommodate these students in private medical colleges (by increasing the number of seats as a one-time measure) if they cannot be admitted to government ones. He said the Lok Sabha committee on External Affairs recommended that the students be accommodated in the medical colleges in India.

Since these students sought education in Ukraine due to their inability to pay the higher fees in private medical colleges in India, a special dispensation may be considered in the form of a comparable fee structure in private medical colleges in India similar to the fees paid by the students abroad. This will allow the affected students to continue their education, he said.

He also requested the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to identify colleges and universities abroad suitable for these medical students under the academic mobility scheme.

“This process of identifying appropriate colleges and accommodating our students needs to be  centrally coordinated rather than leaving it to individual students to scout for colleges in various countries. An appropriate framework may kindly be put in place for this process,” Stalin said.