MCI allowing sub-standard medical colleges: CBI

New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, it has been found that several sub-standard medical colleges in the country have been getting permissions from the Medical Council of India. In these colleges, daily wage labourers act as patients and local doctors play professors to get clearances.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet against six such medical colleges, saying they were given permission despite flouting norms.

And if this not worse, the MCI has given permissions and even added more seats in these colleges despite a CBI chargesheet in this regard.

The CBI has filed at least eight chargesheets against private medical colleges across the country and more are expected to follow. The officials of the new MCI or Board of Governors as they are called are also under the scanner.

According to the CBI, some MCI officials leak information about the upcoming inspections well in advance to the colleges, following which they make labourers act as patients and local doctors as professors.

The CBI has red flagged these colleges:

- Sri Guru Ram Institute of Medical and Health Sciences, Dehradun

- Index Medical College, Indore

- Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneshwar

- Bhaskar Medical College, Hyderabad

- Sri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kanchipuram

- Adi Parashakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kanchipuram

In addition, a preliminary inquiry has been lodged against two colleges from Uttar Pradesh by the CBI and a probe is on against another college in Rajasthan. The CBI then sent a copy of the chargesheets to the MCI for action. The MCI promptly issued a show-cause. And then, in a shocking reversal, the MCI went ahead and gave permission to three colleges to start post graduate courses, and two colleges were given the go-ahead to increase seats.

All the chargesheeted colleges have been given permission to admit students for the current year. Only two colleges were debarred from admitting students for two years.

The MCI has overlooked its own law that bars colleges giving false undertakings from admitting fresh students for two years. Repeated attempts at getting a response from MCI chief Dr KK Talwar also elicited no response. The Health Ministry too refused to answer the questions.

The government decided to disband the MCI in a bid to clean up the stables following large scale allegations of corruption against the council. Now these charges are being levelled by the CBI against the various colleges and even officials of the present MCI. And going by the chargesheets, it is clear that the problem has not just worsened but it is also raising questions about the quality of doctors these colleges are churning out.

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