Bhubaneswar, June 6: The state government’s repeated announcements to increase MBBS seats in two medical colleges have remained only on paper.

Increase of medical seats was promised at two government institutes — MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur and VSS Medical College and Hospital in Burla.

Principal health secretary Pradipta Mohapatra in January this year had announced that seats in the two colleges had been increased from 150 to 250 from the current academic year.

However, the seat matrix announced by the Medical Council of India does not reflect increase in seats.

When contacted, Mohapatra said that efforts were on to increase the seats from the next academic session. He told The Telegraph: “The increase of seats could not materialise due to lack of required infrastructure. Now, the infrastructure development is going on and once it is over, we will vigorously pursue the matter.”

In the state, there are 950 MBBS seats and 100 bachelors of dental surgery (BDS) seats. Of the total seats, 85 per cent seats are reserved for the students from the state. Apart from these medical colleges, two private universities — KIIT and SOA — also have two medical and two dental colleges. However, as private universities, they conduct their own tests to select their candidates. The two universities have 200 MBBS and 150 dental seats.

The AIIMS Bhubaneswar has 100 seats, which will be filled up through a separate entrance test.

Around 35,000 students from the state have appeared the All-India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Entrance Test conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education this year and the results are expected to be announced anytime this week.

However, with the MBBS seat strength remaining unchanged, the students are all the more apprehensive.

“I was so glad when they announced about increase in seats. There would have been 300 seats more and I was hopeful of a chance. But now, I’m not confident enough,” said Ashwin Jena, an aspirant.

Despite less course fee, better infrastructure and quality teaching, the poor meritorious students aspiring for MBBS seats in government medical colleges are disappointed as the number of seats there are less consequently many can’t get through.

While counselling for successful candidates for the 15 per cent all-India quota of seats will be conducted by the director general of health services, the counselling for admission to seats under the control of other participating states, universities and institutions shall be conducted by the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Odisha.