A conditional Letter of Intent (LoI) has been issued to the Government Medical College at Sundargarh, Odisha for 100 MBBS seats by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
If the Government of Odisha is able to fulfil the conditions stipulated in the permission letter the Government Medical College at Sundargarh will be the ninth government medical college in Odisha to offer medical education with the total number of seats shooting up to 1,350, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
The commission has asked the Dean and Principal of the Medical College to submit an undertaking with an assurance to provide all infrastructural facilities in terms of teaching and non-teaching staff, building, equipment and hospital as per NMC norms.
The authorities of the college will have to offer this undertaking to provide funds in their budget till the facilities are fully developed as per the time-bound programme indicated by them.
The medical college will also give an undertaking to implement the decision regarding payment of stipend during the internship of the undergraduate (UG) students similar to other UG sections of government medical colleges of the State, a communication stated.
The apex body has warned that no student should be admitted to the course till formal permission from the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) and the permission can be revoked or withdrawn if misrepresentation of facts or fraud comes to notice.
Another LoI soon?
The Government of Odisha is also expecting LoI for another medical college at Keonjhar which was also inspected by NMC. The inspection team had also expressed satisfaction with the infrastructure. In April, the NMC had declined LoI after finding deficiencies in infrastructure, equipment and faculty positions.
