K’taka Medical Education Minister directs officials to seal nursing colleges with no amenities

Karnataka Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil on Thursday directed officials of his department to conduct inspection and seal the nursing colleges that have failed to provide even basic infrastructure to the students.

Chairing a meeting with the members of the nursing college managements and medical education department officials at Vikasa Soudha, the minister said he had received numerous complaints over lack of infrastructure in many nursing colleges.

He instructed director of medical education Sujatha Rathore, who also attended the meeting, to inspect and seal those colleges.

Expressing his displeasure against the managements of private colleges, Patil said the government acted soft with the managements of private colleges hoping that they would rectify their mistakes but to no avail.

“Barring few, most of the colleges lack facilities such as inadequate teaching and non-teaching staff, lack of library and laboratory facilities, hygiene and other issues. They collect huge fees from students during admission but fail to provide facilities,” said the minister.

Officials were also directed to visit colleges before the admission and check if they are adhering to government’s rules and take strict action against those flouting norms.

Patil also said he had rejected the demand of nursing college managements to hike the fee structure by 20 percent, keeping the interests of students in mind.

The fee for each student getting admission under government quota is Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh under management quota and for non-Karnataka students it will be Rs 1.40 lakh.

The minister also urged the colleges to provide 40 percent seats under government quota.

“There are 35,000 seats available in 611 nursing colleges. Right now, 20 percent of it comes under government quota. If they make it 40 percent, it will greatly help poor students,” he added.

The minister also instructed the officials to work out modalities to begin the admission process in July instead of September from the current academic year.

Senior officials including Mohammad Mohsin, principal secretary, medical education department and PR Shivaprasad, registrar, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences attended the meeting.

 

With PTI and ANI inputs