The State government has opposed the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) decision to defer guidelines for cap on medical seats in the States by a year and has demanded that the policy be rolled back permanently.
NMC in August earlier this year notified guidelines which capped the medical seats in a State at 100 seats per 10 lakh population. In a public notification issued on November 15, NMC has said the implementation of these guidelines was deferred by a year and they will now come into force from the academic year 2025-26.
As per these guidelines, it would be a long time before the State could add even a single medical seat. In proportion to the 6.73 crore estimated population of the State, medical seats in the State should be capped at 6,700 seats, when the State already had 11,745 medical seats.
“The NMC has no authority to issue these guidelines. It is highly objectionable. And we will not agree to its implementation ever, so there is no point in it being deferred. We demand that the guidelines be rolled back permanently. The Government of Karnataka will write to the NMC and the Union government taking strong objection to the decision of just deferring the unfair guidelines and not rolling them back,” said Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil.
Several States, especially South Indian States, which have more seats than the cap that was sought to be imposed and had further plans to expand medical education in their States, including Karnataka, had opposed the guidelines vehemently.
The NMC notification on November 15 said: “A decision has been taken by the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), National Medical Commission that the ‘Objective’ clause under Chapter-1 of “Guidelines for Under Graduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses & Assessment and Rating Regulations-2023”, shall be implemented from academic year 2025-26”.
