Chintpurni college students hold protest over poor teaching, infrastructure

Faridkot, July 13

Over 100 students of Chintpurni Medical College (CMC), Pathankot, on Saturday staged a protest in front of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), urging authorities to shift them to some other recognised medical colleges in the state.

The protesting students accompanied by their parents alleged that the CMC was ill-equipped to teach the students who secured admission in 2022 and 2021. Apart from the shortage of clinical material, there is a scarcity of teachers to teach important subjects, they claimed.

The protesting students alleged that the college authorities have failed to resolve their issues despite these deficiencies being highlighted by them.

Deepak Bhatti, Registrar, BFUHS, said the university cannot shift the students to other colleges at this stage as a case in this regard is still pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Since its inception in 2011, Chintpurni Medical College has been courting controversies. In May, 2023, the BFUHS had temporarily withdrawn the affiliation of the college for the session 2023-2024 after it noticed deficiencies during a surprise inspection on February 17, 2023. The college was not allowed to admit students to the MBBS course last year as it had failed to comply with various provisions governing the affiliation.

Earlier in December 2017, 249 MBBS students of 2014 and 2016 batches were shifted to eight medical colleges in the state as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

For suffering with many deficiencies and irregularities, the National Medical Commission (NMC) had given conditional recognition to this college. This college was debarred from making admission on 150 MBBS seats in 2017 and 2018 batches.

Last time, the admission on 150 MBBS seats in this college was made for academic year 2022 and there was no admission in 2023. Next batch of students in MBBS course will be admitted only after permission of the NMC.