Healer-dealer colleges play with students' future

Unhealthy trend

The college, however, violated the directions and enrolled 40 students through the management quota. Then, it propped up students to approach the courts to get their admission legalised, while forcing announcement of the examination results from the university concerned.

But what’s the achievement of the students? Of the 40 students, who appeared for the exams, only two passed!

For Kannada Balaga Ayurvedic Medical College, Belgaum, which has been under the scanner of the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) for three successive years, this modus operandi may have worked while enrolling the students, but for the students it has not.

The college, which has been banned from enrolling students 2008 onwards for not rectifying the deficiencies cited by CCIM, has made Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas order the closure of the college. The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) is now apparently “working on it”.

The college, however, is not alone in hoodwinking the authorities and students. In 2009-10, as many as 25 private colleges of the total 57 ayurvedic medical colleges affiliated to RGUHS were not granted permission by the CCIM, a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, for the second consecutive year, to conduct admissions.

A majority of the colleges had failed to rectify the staff deficiencies. The prescribed teaching staff strength by the CCIM is 35. However, at least 11 colleges moved the courts and got the admissions legalised for the first year Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) course. But RGUHS refused to announce the results of the examinations which were held in January this year. The aggrieved students approached the courts and managed to get their results in March. While seven colleges have been able to “forcibly” obtain the results by producing court orders to RGUHS, the rest are yet to get the results.

RGUHS officials say the students who have failed are demanding that the university should accommodate them in reputed colleges. The students pay hefty fees of Rs one lakh annually for the four-and-half-year course. CCIM, which is winding up its inspections for 2011-12, had de-recognised 19 colleges in 2010-11.