Bhubaneswar, Oct. 1: The future of 124 students enrolled at Sardar Rajas Medical College at Jaring in Kalahandi district will remain uncertain if they are not absorbed into other medical colleges.
Despite the assurance from the state government that they will be admitted into other private medical colleges of the state, it is going to be a Herculean task.
While all the private medical colleges in the state have completed their admission process for the current academic year and all seats had been filled up, the matter of adjusting the 124 candidates in these institutions is not going to be an easy affair. Though there are four private medical colleges in the state, the Medical Council of India had slashed the seats of two colleges from this academic year.
While 50 seats of the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences have been slashed, the Hi-Tech Medical College in Rourkela has lost 100 seats.
Only the seat strength at the Hi-Tech Medical College & Hospital in Bhubaneswar and the Institute of Medical Sciences & Sum Hospital remain unchanged at 100 and 150, respectively.
Development commissioner U.N. Behera said they had requested the council to consider the proposal of adjusting the new students to the existing private colleges.
However, with the existing institutions failing to meet the council's basic criteria of infrastructure and strength of faculty members, such an adjustment looks unlikely.
"It is just a hogwash. The matter must be handled carefully, lest 124 students would suffer without recognised certificates," said Himanshu Parida, a faculty member at the medical college.
Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra said it was an unfortunate decision by the cabinet. "Why do they want to shrug off their responsibilities by admitting the students into private colleges. They should have ideally waited for the council decision before making any such move," said Mishra.
Yesterday, the cabinet also directed the Western Odisha Development Council to take over the functioning of the Sardar Rajas Medical College and find a suitable private partner through public-private partnership to revive the institution, so that the medical college could be operational.
