Hyderabad, April 28: The State government is contemplating to revise its long-standing policy of keeping its medical seats out of the national pool.
Chief Minister K. Rosaiah has decided to convene an all-party meeting soon for consultations whether the State should join the national pool wherein MBBS/ PG seats will be shared among the States on a reciprocal basis. Andhra Pradesh had opted out of the national pool when NTR was Chief Minister, but over the years, the government realised that this policy was preventing students from competing for the large number of seats in other States.
Minister for Medical Education P. Sudarshan Reddy said here on Tuesday that the government had revised the professor-student ratio in medical colleges to provide proper back-up for the increase in the post-graduate medical seats to 1,507 in government as well as private institutions.
Speaking to reporters after holding discussions with the Chief Minister, the Minister denied reports that PG seats were unduly increased in three private medical colleges. He said the MCI had asked the NTR University of Health Sciences to permit additional seats in these colleges only after inspection of the available faculty and infrastructure, and after ensuring proper affidavits from the managements to the university. He allayed fears that the additional seats permitted would be converted into management quota seats.
The Minister said it had been decided to take necessary steps to fill the 240 vacancies in the faculty and those of doctor posts by June. He announced that infrastructure facilities in 10 government medical colleges would be improved at a cost of Rs. 278 crore.
He instructed officials to introduce biometric system to ensure attendance by faculty and students and examine the possibility of introducing objective-type questions in all written examinations of MBBS and PG as in AIIMS, PGA and JIPMER.
-Agencies