Chandigarh: Acting on Chief
Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s directives, senior Punjab government
officials on Wednesday met officials of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to
work out the modalities for shifting of students of Chintpurni Medical College,
Pathankot, to other medical colleges.
Punjab Secretary
Medical Education and Research Vikas Pratap and Dr Raj Bahadur, Vice Chancellor
of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, represented the state government
at the meeting. An official
spokesperson said a high-level meeting was also held on Wednesday with the
Joint Secretary (Medical Education), Government of India.
Talking to media
persons after the meetings, Brahm Mohindra said the MCI had responded positively
and expressed the hope that the exercise of shifting the students to other
medical colleges would be undertaken soon.
The meetings came just days after the Chief Minister assured students of Chintpurni of his government’s full support to resolve their issues and get the matter of shifting them to other colleges expedited with MCI. The college students had met Captain Amarinder Singh in Pathankot last week to seek his personal intervention in the matter.
It may be
recalled that de-recognition of the Chintpurni Medical College by MCI had
jeopardized the future of the students studying in this college. Even at that
time Capt Amarinder, as well as Medical Education & Research Minister Brahm
Mohindra, had assured the affected students that the Government would take all
necessary steps to safeguard their interests.
The Captain Amarinder led government has already made it clear that it would take all possible steps to ensure the highest standards of medical education in the state. Soon after coming to power, the Congress Government had successfully rehabilitated the students of Gian Sagar Group of Colleges and the Chief Minister has assured students of Chintpurni of similar responsiveness by his government to their woes.
Chintpurni was owned and managed by BJP leader Swaran Salaria, now the party’s candidate for the Lok Sabha bypoll in Gurdaspur.