Karnataka: Medical Education minister directs officials to seal nursing colleges that lack basic amenities

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 13 : Karnataka Medical Education, Skill Development and Livelihood Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil issued tough instructions to the officials of his department on Thursday to conduct an inspection and seal the nursing colleges that have failed to provide basic infrastructure facilities to the students after availing of all the facilities from the government.
Chairing the meeting with the members of the nursing college management and medical education department officials at Vikasa Soudha, the minister said he'd received numerous complaints over the lack of infrastructure facilities in many nursing colleges. He instructed the Director of Medical Education, Dr Sujatha Rathore, present in the meeting, to inspect and seal those colleges.
Expressing his displeasure against the managements of private colleges, Dr Patil said the government acted softly with the managements of private colleges, hoping that they would rectify their mistakes but to no avail. "Barring a few, most of the colleges lack facilities such as inadequate teaching and non-teaching staff, a lack of library and laboratory facilities, hygiene and other issues. They collect huge fees from students during admission but fail to provide facilities," the minister questioned.
He directed the officials to visit colleges before admission and check if they were adhering to the government's rules and regulations and take strict action against those flouting norms.
Rejecting the demand of nursing college management to hike the fee structure by 20 percent, Dr Patil said that the government would always safeguard the interests of students. The fee for each student getting admission under government quota is Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh under the management quota and for non-Karnataka students, it will be Rs 1.40 lakh.
The minister suggested the management to provide 40 percent of the seats under the government quota. There are 35,000 seats available in 611 nursing colleges. The management fills 80 percent while 20 percent goes under the government quota.
"If the management provides 40 percent of the seats under the government quota, then it will greatly help poor students," Dr. Patil requested.
The minister 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.