National Medical Commission Clarifies Misleading Reports on Approval of 113 New Medical Colleges

New Delhi: Busting the misleading reports circulating in the print and electronic media, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued a public notice to clarify the status of applications for the establishment of new medical colleges for the academic year 2024-25. NMC, through the notice, stated that the list of 113 medical colleges was meant to disclose the list of applications and not the final list of approved colleges. 

“With reference to MARB’s Public Notice dated 6 th July, 2024, it has been observed that some fake news published/aired in Print/Electronic Media stating that Medical Assessment & Rating Board (MARB) in its final decision has taken on 113 applications for Establishment of New Medical Colleges for the Academic Year 2024-25,” the notice reads. 

“It is clarified that the NMC in its Public Notice dated 6 th July, 2024 has published only the list of applications against which the final decisions have been taken by the MARB.Final decision does not mean approval in respect of all 113 applications.The decision may be either approval or disapproval.Such decisions have already been communicated to the medical institutions concerned. The decisions will be uploaded on the website of NMC in due course,” the NMC clarified through the notice. 

The NMC urged all stakeholders and the general public to rely solely on information provided on the official NMC website and to disregard any baseless reports in the media. The Commission stresses the importance of verifying information from authentic sources to avoid the spread of false news. For accurate updates and decisions regarding the establishment of new medical colleges, visit the official NMC website.

As per the list of 113 applications shared by NMC, 50 were government colleges and the rest were private ones. As per the list, 22 applications were received from UP, followed by 14 in Maharashtra, and 12 in Rajasthan, 11 in Telangana, eight in West Bengal, seven each in Madhya Pradesh and  Andhra Pradesh, five each in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and two in Kerala.  Moreover, three applications were from Uttarakhand, two each from Odisha and Gujarat, and one each from Haryana, Delhi, Assam, Punjab, Sikkim and Tripura.

“In continuation of MARB’s Public Notice dated the 3rd April 2024, with reference to the applications received for Establishment of New UG Medical Colleges for Academic Year: 2024-25, it is informed that final decisions of MARB in respect of 113 applications have been communicated through e-mail IDs (as mentioned in online applications) to the Medical Institutions/Colleges concerned for information and necessary action by them within the stipulated timeline,” the notice reads.

The NMC has also revised some rules for the establishment of medical colleges. Now, medical colleges can be started with only 50 seats if they have a functional hospital and faculties in all the clinical departments. Hospitals should have a minimum capacity of 200 beds and 20 ICU beds. NMC aims to set up new medical colleges in every district of the country. Currently, there are 706 medical colleges in India. With the approval of new medical colleges, the number has reached 819.