Minister for Health and Medical Education Department, Bali Baghat Thursday informed the Legislative Council that the Government is vigorously pursuing, with the concerned authorities, the issue of increase in the post-graduate medical seats for the state’s Medical Colleges.The Minister was replying to a joint Calling Attention Notice by MLCs Mohammad Khursheed Aalam and Qaiser Jamsheed Lone in this regard.Giving details, the Minister informed the House that the Medical Council of India has informed J&K that the central Government has decided to grant one-time increase in seats in Clinical Courses under revised teacher-student ratio in Government Medical Colleges.“The Principal Secretary, Health & Medical Education Department on behalf of the State Government attended the meeting related to on-time increase of UG and PG seats in Government Medical Colleges for the year 2018-19 convened by the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India at New Delhi,” he said.
The Minister said that the Principal Secretary H&ME Department handed over the proposal of State Government for increase of 133 PG Seats in Government Medical Colleges, Srinagar and another 107 PG Seats in GMC, Jammu, as one time increase of UG and PG Seats in Government Medical Colleges of State for the year 2018-19. He further informed that 64 Seats of PG in various disciplines have been projected by SKIMS Medical College Bemina as per the student ratio on existing infrastructure.The Minister said that a meeting was also convened with Medical Council of India (MCI) authorities on 16—18 January 2018 regarding increase in PG seats in broad specialties and the MCI has agreed to increases PG seats in the Departments of Anaesthesia, Medicine, Surgery, Orthopaedics, ENT, Ophthalmology, Paediatrics and Psychiatrics.‘In this regard, the Principals of Government Medical Colleges, Srinagar and Jammu had submitted the proposals to MCI vide their letter dated 6-1-2018and on 17th January 2018 and 16-1-2018 respectively,” the Minister added.