RGUHS nixes Rajarajeshwari medical college's Maddur proposal

The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) has rejected the application submitted by the management of the Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital, Bengaluru, to set up a new medical college at Maddur in Mandya district.

After a detailed discussion and opposition by a majority of the members at the Syndicate meeting on Thursday, the university decided not to grant permission to start the college.

RGUHS sources said the application was rejected mainly on the grounds that the applicant did not meet the criteria set by the National Medical Council (NMC).

Some of the members raised objections to the university authorities for receiving the application from the institute and conducting inspection.

Speaking to DH, a syndicate member said, “Though the institute is located in Karnataka, they are not giving seats to Karnataka students, saying that they come under the deemed-to-be university category. When this is the case, what is the need to permit them to start another college?”

“Even if we grant permission now, they will give seats for the first few years for state students as they did in the existing college, and later shift them under the deemed-to-be university category. This is the reason we strongly opposed giving permission,” said another member of the syndicate.

Functioning hospital

The applicant institution has not met one of the important criteria by NMC, which says it is required to have a functioning hospital for the last two years.

“The land shown by the applicant was the place where a private school was functioning earlier and they just modified it to a hospital,” said an official from the university.

Rajarajeshwari Medical College principal Dr Naveen S told DH, “We have not received information about the rejection of application. The place where we have proposed to set up the medical college had a hospital and all documents regarding that are available,” he said.

On giving seats to students from Karnataka, he said, “More than 50% of students in the existing institution are from Karnataka. When there is a shortage of doctors across the country, the university should not reject applications for small reasons.”

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