Twenty-four MBBS students of the ESI-Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences & Research in Joka started an 'indefinite hunger strike' on Thursday to protest the decision to shut down the medical college.

The Union labour ministry has decided to stop admission of students to all medical colleges and medical education institutions run by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) from the next academic year.

The Joka institution has 200 MBBS students in the first and second years.

Their future will be ruined if the ESI authorities refuse to allow them to complete their course - unless the students are inducted into other medical colleges or the health department takes over the Joka institution.

The institute's dean, Jayashree Halder, said the ESIC had ruled out reconsidering its decision to stop admission but was ready to let the current students complete the course.

'We are in the dark about what the authorities plan to do with us. We'll continue the hunger strike till the authorities announce their plan,' said Ankush Mondal, a second-year MBBS student participating in the hunger strike.

The students fear that even if they are absorbed in other government-run medical colleges, they would stand to 'lose a year'.

They referred to the fate of the first batch of MBBS students at SSKM.

When the first batch of 100-odd students was admitted in 2004, SSKM did not have the Medical Council of India's approval to run the course. 'More than 30 students left SSKM and the rest were accommodated next year. But those students had to lose a year,' said an official.

Sushanta Banerjee, the director of medical education in Bengal, has communicated to the Joka institute that the state would not take it over. 'If the Medical Council of India approaches us, we'll accommodate the students in state-run medical colleges,' Banerjee said Thursday.