Counselling for admission to MBBS seats being held at NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) here on Tuesday was marred by protests. Some candidates and their parents squatted at the venue demanding that counselling be conducted for all 550 cancelled seats which were restored to six medical colleges subject to the condition that each one of them has to deposit Rs. 10 crore with the Medical Council of India (MCI), file affidavits with the Supreme Court and submit copies of the same to NTRUHS.
While doing so, they were asked to take steps for upgrading their facilities before the year-end. Failure to do so would result in forfeiture of the deposits paid by them. The MCI had cancelled 550 seats in Fatima Institute of Medical Sciences (FIMS), Kadapa (100 seats), Great Eastern Medical School and Hospital, Srikakulam (100), Katuri Medical College and Hospital, Guntur (50), Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences (MRIMS), Ranga Reddy district (150), Mediciti Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS), Hyderabad (50) and VRK Medical College, Hyderabad (100) but subsequently restored them by imposing the conditions when those colleges challenged the MCI’s decision to cancel seats.
However, only three colleges (FIMS, MRIMS and MIMS) paid the money and undertook to upgrade the infrastructure while the other reneged on their commitment to improve facilities in the respective institutions. Candidates who reached NTRUHS on Tuesday to participate in the counselling insisted that all the 550 seats should be filled but the varsity officials could not oblige them for obvious reasons.
NTRUHS Vice-Chancellor T. Ravi Raju told The Hindu that the government was informed of the controversy and hoped that a decision would be taken soon. Counselling could not be held for 250 seats in the three colleges as any step in that direction would be contempt of court, he said.