The Medical Council of India (MCI) is expected to approve an additional 200 MBBS seats in state medical colleges for the academic year 2012-13, medical education minister Kondru Murali said on Thursday. Interacting with the media at the Secretariat, Mr Murali said the government has filled up all vacancies for teachers in government medical colleges as per MCI norms. This, he said, will help raise the number of seats in existing government colleges.
The state at present has 4,800 MBBS seats in its 37 medical colleges. Of them, nearly 1,200 are in the 13 state medical colleges and the rest in 24 private colleges. The government was trying to secure an additional 500 MBBS seats in 10 government medical colleges by raising 50 seats in each institution.
But the MCI, which recently inspected these colleges, is learnt to have expressed dissatisfaction over the existing faculty and infrastructure, saying it will not support additional seats. However, Mr Murali expressed confidence that the MCI would soon add 50 seats each in four old government medical institutions, including Osmania and Gandhi Medical Colleges. He said the additional seats would be available for students in Eamcet medical counselling by July.