Patna, July 1: For the second consecutive year, the state-run Patna Dental College and Hospital (PDCH) could be out-of-bound for the budding dentists this academic session. Owing to acute faculty crunch, it might not get permission to enrol new students in bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) course.

The only government-run dental college in the state had to deny admission to students last year as Dental Council of India (DCI) had recommended to the Government of India to not to allow fresh admission in the college.

“Last year, a list of qualifying students was prepared but the state government later denied admission to 40 seats of PDCH,” a source said.

“We have a sanctioned strength of 49 teachers. But only 21 faculty members are there at present. Four professors, eight readers and 11 teachers were recruited last year but the faculty is still short of the required strength and we are sceptical about the admission this year too,” PDCH principal Dr D.K. Singh said.

He said a DCI team had inspected the college three months ago and had submitted its recommendations to the Union government.

“Now it is up to the Union ministry of health to take a final decision on whether we can admit students this year or not,” Singh said.

Of the 40 seats in the dental college, 30 are filled up through Bihar quota. The rest goes to the qualifiers of CBSE- All-India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT).

The students who cleared Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination are anxious over the state of affairs at the dental college. Majority of them feel the government was not serious enough about it.

“Students study so hard to make it to the medical and dental colleges. If they are denied seats just because of the failure of the government to put the manpower and the infrastructure in place, it is a shame,” Rajeev Pandey, father of a medical aspirant, said.

The counselling for admission to various medical colleges of the state is going on at present. Students of PDCH, too, said the college was completely failing to provide quality education to them because of lack of faculty.

“We are somehow coping with the situation. The government does not seem to be serious enough to the needs of the technical education institutions in the state,” a second-year BDS student of the college said.