Vijayawada: Dr NTR University for Health Sciences (NTRUHS) has landed in controversy following its decision to grant grace marks to PG students of nearly 30 disciplines, including diploma and degrees of PG super speciality courses. It is learnt that the NTRUHS officials came under pressure from political circles close to CMO and health ministry.
The Executive Council (EC), which met here in the city a few days ago, took this controversial decision, which benefits around 50 PG students of various disciplines pursuing diplomas and degrees in super speciality courses. Following heavy political pressure from top bosses in government, the health minister directed NTRUHS authorities to pass the resolution in EC. Interestingly, the principle secretary (health and family welfare) was not part of the EC meeting.
The system of giving gr-ace marks was introduced post bifurcation on the request of the Telangana government, according to health minister Dr Kamineni Srinivas.
When contacted, NTRUHS vice-chancellor Dr T. Raviraju said that this was an old tradition and there was nothing new. When asked about the absence of principle secretary (medical and health) in the EC meeting, the vice-chancellor said that she was on an official three days tour to Tirupati. “However, she had sent the secretaries of the department, to th-at meeting,” Dr Raviraju said.
The meeting was attended by director (medical education) and principal, Government Dental College (GDC), who are also EC members. DME, Dr Subba Rao, said that this was a decision taken by the EC, and as honorary member, he can’t comment on it.
Another EC member, Dr Murali Mohan, who is also the principal of Government Dental Coll-ege (GDC), Vijayawada, was not available for comment.
In fact, there used to be some instances of giving five grace marks to under-graduate students earlier, a senior officer of NTRUHS said and differed with the statement given by the vice-chancellor. “In the 35 year-history of NTRUHS, giving gr-ace marks to PG students never took place,” he said on condition of anonymity and added that only PG students of 2014-15 and 2015-16 were given such facility against the guidelines of Medical Council of India (MCI).
