Patna: Sushil Kumar Modi on Sunday claimed the illustrious Patna Medical College alumni was not doing enough for their alma mater, but the former students said they were not sure if their contributions would be properly utilised.

Modi was the chief guest at the 93rd foundation day celebrations of the medical college on Sunday.

"I saw the alumni contribution towards the college and I found it very meagre. After industrialists, doctors are considered among the most well off professionals. It is expected that you (the PMCH alumni) would pay back your alma mater. Even the Harvard and Cambridge University alumni collect big corpus fund for development work at their alma mater. The government alone is not supposed to take steps for the development of an institution," Modi said at the programme, urging the alumni to contribute to their institution's development.

Patna Medical College sources said the alumni association has a corpus fund of Rs 30 lakh that is used to award gold medals and scholarships to poor students.

The college's alumni - some of who work in the top hospitals in the country and abroad - were at the programme. Not averse to contribution, they, however, said they had very little faith of the proper utilisation of the funds.

"Majority of the alumni members would think twice while making financial commitment to their alma mater. Because we are still not sure where our money would go - if it would be properly utilised. There is no clear plan," said Thanmal Jain, a member of the 1967-74 batch.

His wife, Shail Jain, another former student, said she was ready to come forward for the cause of her alma mater if there was any definite project. The Patna Medical College and Hospital administration should take the lead in case, she insisted.

"In case there is a definite project that the government is supporting, we can get funding from our batchmates settled in US," she said. "So far as my contributions are concerned, I can donate many pathological slides for teaching."

The couple had come from Cleveland in Ohio for the celebrations.

Senior cardiologist with East Lancashire Hospitals in the UK, Sri Krishna Singh said he had reasons to not have faith in the system. " I donated my property in my native village (Bel Bihma in Tarapur block of Munger district) to the health department five years ago. The additional primary health centre runs from the house. It has been five years but the centre is running without water and electricity. I expected my contribution not to go to waste but this is exactly what happened. I have written letters to the health department but nothing concrete has been done," he said.

Geeta Sinha, member of the 1969-76 batch now settled in Boston, said: "We have given PMCH a name in the United States. Most of the people there know we are PMCH-ians. So that way we are contributing."

Patna Medical College principal Dr Vijay Kumar Gupta said many alumni members had promised to donate foreign journals to the library.

"It would hardly be a big thing for the alumni to donate a few foreign journals but would be a big boon for the students and teachers," he said.