Four medical colleges in Karnataka were denied Medical Council of India permission to admit fresh batch of students for academic year 2014-15, while two other colleges were not allowed to increase student intake due to poor infrastructure and inadequate faculty.

The Council in its executive committee meeting last month, rejected the application of these colleges. The four colleges denied permission to admit MBBS freshers are ESIC Medical College in Gulbarga, Subbaiah Institute of Medical Sciences in Shimoga, BGS Global Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore and Srinivas Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Srinivasnagar, Mangalore, according to the minutes of the meeting, posted on the MCI website.

The rejected institutes, officials said, could rectify the shortcomings and approach the Council once again for approval. If satisfied after the second inspection, the MCI can recommend to the union health ministry to permit these colleges to go ahead with their plans, but the process has to be completed by July 15.

The apex regulatory authority for medical education did not permit Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bangalore and Mysore Medical College and Research Centre, Mysore to enhance their intake from 150 to 200 and 100 to 150 respectively.

In all the cases, the deficiencies include shortage of faculty and resident doctors, absence of diagnostic units, specialised departments, hostel rooms and outsourcing of hospital work.

For instance, the MCI team found only one patient in casualty area in BGS Global Institute and most of the admitted patients suffered from minor and vague ailments not requiring in-patient treatment.

The government-run ESIC medical college had 29 per cent faculty shortage resulting in several diagnostic units being short-staffed or their workload being  outsourced. One of the shortcomings of the Shimoga institute was its failure to post a citizen's charter on its website. Karnataka has 46 medical colleges offering MBBS courses and some of them approached the Council to increase their student intake.

The MCI perused applications of 55 medical colleges from across the country and found only 10 institutions to be fit to either admit a fresh batch of students or increase their existing capacity.

The panel decided to process the application of Aakash Education and Development Trust to set up a new medical college in Devanahalli in Bangalore as the land was found to be in order and the town municipal council had approved the building plan.