Shimla: Medical Council of India (MCI) having downgraded the status of two state medical colleges and technical education authorities having questioned credentials of 16 engineering institutions, opposition leader Prem Kumar Dhumal today held the government responsible for not protecting the interest of meritorious students.
“Negligence by the state government has reduced the MBBS seats at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla (IGMC) and Tanda Medical College, Kangra (TMC) from 200 to 115 that has forced many meritorious students who have qualified the medical college entrance examinations to take admission in other states,” said Dhumal in a communiqué.
“The government has been found wanting, he said. The former chief minister mentioned that despite there being a Congress led UPA government in the centre, the then BJP government in the state had obtained permission to increase MBBS seats from 65 to 100 in IGMC and from 50 to 100 at TMC. Post graduate medical seats in the two medical colleges were increased from 39 to 149, he stated.
Asking the Virbhadra government to remove the deficiencies in infrastructure pointed out by MCI, Dhumal added providing adequate infrastructure is the states task and laying the blame at the central governments door was only a ploy to shirk for owning up responsibility.
With the state technical education department having revoked affiliation of 16 engineering institutes, just two days ago, the opposition leader accused the government of pandering to the interest of institutes outside the state for the students have been forced to take admission in them.
The government is playing with the interests of engineering students, he said. He alleged that last year also the government had imposed stiff conditions for admissions in the state technical institutions and this year affiliation of many institutions stands revoked. Whose interests are being protected and for whom are such policies being made,’ the opposition leader questioned?
On June 28, technical education minister GS Bali at a media conference at Dharamshala announced revoking of affiliation of 16 technical education institutions.
Of the 39 technical institutes in the state there are 24 in the private sector which had 7500 seats on offer. In the 15 government institutes there are only 2200 seats. The government decision has put the future of 4000 students at stake.
“Technical institutes have lowered education standards by violating norms laid down by the technical education board,” said Bali. The government would act strictly to improve quality of education for which grading system would be introduced after taking legal opinion into account, he added.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
Given the number of students that qualify from Himachal, the seats should be further reduced. IIT Mandi should be closed as there is neither qualified teachers in Himachal, nor students who can clear the entrance. IQ is very low.
Mr. Bali has taken a necessary and bold step of disaffiliating sub-standard technical institutions. Mr. Dhumal may criticise him now but during his own tenure he left no stone unturned to lower the standards of technical education in the state simply in order to take credit for increasing the number of seats. Applicants who could not even PASS the JEE were given admission! The result was that engineering graduates from HP could not even get jobs as Mates or Supervisors! This emphasis on numbers at the cost of quality has to stop for higher education to have any value, and Iam glad that Mr. Bali realises this. He is the rare politician who can take non-populist decisions, and I wish him all success in his effort to clean up this rot.
pls provide the names of the institutions whose affiliation are revoked .is uiit shimla name is present there in that list ??