Patna, June 13: Medical aspirants in the state can now breathe easy as the Medical Council of India (MCI) has asked the Centre not to slash 350 seats from the state-run medical colleges.

The council sent a letter to the government in this regard, on Friday.

MCI had decided to cut 350 seats of government colleges in Bihar at its executive council meeting at the Delhi headquarters in May. It had decided that the new colleges - Government Medical College, Bettiah, and Vardhaman Ayurvigyan Sansthan, Pawapuri - would not be allowed to admit new students in each of their 100-seat MBBS courses.

Besides, it had also decided against allowing Gaya-based Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College, Muzaffarpur-based Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital and Bhagalpur-based Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital to start admission procedure to fill up each of their additional 50 MBBS seats. The council changed its mind after the compliance report from the government was found satisfactory.

Had the seats been slashed, the state would have been left with 610 of 960 seats in government colleges.

Sunil Kumar Singh, the vice-president of the state chapter of the council, said: "The council has taken the right decision because most of the medical aspirants in the state hail from poor families and cannot afford to study in private medical colleges. Government-run medical colleges give preference to the candidates from the states. This decision will provide relief to the aspirants from the state."

The principal of Government Medical College, Bettiah, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, who also happens to be the former president of the state wing of the council, expressed his happiness over the decision.

"It is a big achievement for the state government. I appreciate the health department for taking steps, which made the council change its decision," he said.

The health department had taken steps to recruit faculty members. They had also moved papers to the council, which showed that construction-related work was in progress.

He, however, asked the state government to concentrate on the new colleges.

"The state government has to ensure the completion of all the construction-related work of the new colleges in time," he said.

Sources from MCI said the construction-related work of the new colleges is far from complete. This is because Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited, a wing of the state health department, has dilly-dallied on floating tenders related to construction work. If the health department continues to neglect the pending work of the new medical colleges, there is a possibility that the council would deny permission to admit students to the MBBS courses of these colleges in future.