800 seats available in Andhra Pradesh medical colleges

Hyderabad: Eight hundred medical seats are available for students in the Andhra Pradesh region for the year 2014-15. Of these, 350 are additional seats sanctioned by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Minister for health and family welfare Kamineni Srinivas said, “We have got a total of 800 seats in Andhra Pradesh, 500 seats in the government sector and 300 seats in the private sector. With this we have got 350 additional seats which will be allotted in both the sectors.”

While the MCI had cancelled the extra medical seats due to lack of infrastructure and faculty issues, the minister claimed that they had asked the MCI for four months’ time to upgrade the infrastructure facilities.

“We have sought a few months to rectify and make the changes as suggested by the Medical Council of India,” he said, adding, “We will ensure that all the lapses are taken care of. We don’t want the students to suffer and at the same time we require more doctors in our state.”

Ms Praveena Naik, a Telangana student whose admission had been cancelled in NTR Health University for a PG dental seat, has been restored with the granting of
extra seats to Andhra Pradesh.

The government medical colleges in Nellore have got 150 seats, Ongole have got 100 seats, Padmavati Medical College has got 150 seats, Sri Venkateshwara Medical college 50 seats and Kakinada Medical College 50 seats.

Private medical colleges have got 300 seats restored. President of Private Medical Colleges’ Association, Dr Bhaskar Rao said, “Our main aim was to get all the seats back which has now been done. For this year, we are very short on time and hence will not have a separate test for private medical colleges. But the Supreme Court order will be followed from next year onwards.”

The private medical colleges association met the Health minister and also chief minister and apprised them of the situation in Andhra Pradesh. A senior officer explained, “There are too many restrictions and we want the government to do away with them. A smooth process will make it easy for the students.”

At the same time, the private medical colleges are pressing for increasing their quota from 50 per cent to 60 per cent but the government wants to take some time before finalizing.