Students of the newly inaugurated Government Medical College, Jagjeetpur in Haridwar are outraged over the state government’s decision to allegedly ‘privatise’ the medical college.
According to reports, the Uttarakhand government has decided to hand over the medical college to ‘Sharda Educational Trust’. The college is reportedly going to be run on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model after the handover.
ये उत्तराखंड स्वास्थ्य विभाग का अब तक का सबसे बड़ा घोटाला साबित होगा !बेशकीमती सैकड़ों एकड़ सरकारी भूमि पर 800 करोड़ ₹ से ज़्यादा खर्च कर हरिद्वार में जो मेडिकल बनाया, जिसमें पहला बैच अध्ययनरत है, उसे अब निजी हाथों में दिया जा रहा है। तक़रीबन डेढ़ हज़ार करोड़ ₹ के सरकारी… pic.twitter.com/whSxBje91V
— Ajit Singh Rathi (@AjitSinghRathi) January 8, 2025
However, the students of the college are unhappy with the decision of the government. Calling for the rollback of the decision, the students are staging protest in the college premises.
#Haridwar
— Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand (@ZEEUPUK) January 8, 2025
हरिद्वार में छात्रों का विरोध प्रदर्शन
कॉलेज के निजीकरण का किया विरोध
राजकीय मेडिकल कॉलेज का मामला #Haridwar #Protest #medicalcollege @ParidhiJoshiUK pic.twitter.com/ys4g5Rjmlf
The protesting students said that they worked hard to get admission into a government medical college, as admission into a ‘government’ college requires better ranks. Therefore, it is unfair towards them to change the status of the medical college from government to private, because if the government’s plans for handing over the college to a private trust are finalised, their certificates will have medical degrees from a private college, not a government college as they hoped for.
They accused the authorities of keeping them in the dark regarding the privatisation of the college. “We don’t want the tag of a private college”, said a protesting student of the college. “ There is no value of all the hard work that we put in to get admission into the college. We were not even informed about the decision to privatise the college”, she added.
Why the whole controversy over PPP?
Uttarakhand government’s decision to run the Government Medical College, Haridwar on the PPP model has caused outrage among the students of the college. A PPP model involves drawing an agreement between the government and the private party in which responsibilities including financing, revenue and services, etc. are divided between the two. The students are worried that the decision might result into increased fees of the medical course as well a loss of ‘status’ that is often attached with a government medical college.
Government medical colleges provide medical education to their students at highly subsidised costs. This is the reason that every year lakhs of students willing to study medicine appear for the NEET exam, which is a national level entrance exam for admission into government medical colleges. Considering that there are less than 400 government medical colleges in India, admission into a government medical college is not just a matter of prestige for a medical student but also a great financial relief. Out of lakhs of candidates appearing for the NEET exam every year only few thousand make it.
While private medical colleges provide similar and sometimes better educational facilities, they charge exorbitant fee which takes them out of the financial range of a lot of students.
That is the reason that the students of GMC Haridwar are unhappy with the decision of privatisation of the college. However, it has been assured by the government that privatisation will not affect the educational facilities and the fee structure for currently enrolled students. Besides, the degrees and certificates of the students will bear the name of the government medical college only.
Dr Ashutosh Sayana, Director of Medical Education, confirmed that the privatisation will not result in increased fees for the medical course at the college for enrolled students. He added that 100 seats have been approved for MBBS for this session. Supporting the PPP model, Dr Sayana said that the intention behind opting for a PPP model is to equip the hospital and the medical college with better medical facilities.