PANJIM: Repeated media reports on the uncertainty over the 50 provisional MBBS seats in Goa Medical College (GMC) led to pressing panic button amongst students that has not gone down well with the State government.
Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza on Saturday said, “The repeated unclear media stories on Medical Council of India (MCI) cutting down seats in GMC could have led to serious implications on aspiring medical students.”
“This could have even led to students, who were studying hard for so many years for the admissions, committing suicide for failure to get the medical seats,” D’Souza, who holds the health portfolio, said appealing to media houses to be sensitive to students and education issues.
For the current academic year, MCI delayed approval of 50 provisional seats. However, on Thursday MCI announced its approval for the same.
“The media’s insensitive reporting could result in frustration; and college students may resort to taking extreme steps,” D’Souza said.
The health minister also announced that by September a new lecture hall, auditorium and nursing hall would be ready for operation at GMC.
The health minister was supported by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who announced that GMC would continue to have 150 MBBS seats till the academic year 2017-18.
The announcement came at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a new hospital and hostel at Mandur. Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was also present on the occasion.
Parsekar said that it was the Parrikar-led government that in 2012 managed to increase the MBBS seats from 100 to 150. “MCI conducts an annual inspection of infrastructure and other requirements and accordingly renews the permission for the provisional 50 MBBS seats,” Parsekar said.
Parsekar recalled that Parrikar during his first tenure as chief minister in 2001 had increased the MBBS seats from 70 to 100.
