BJ Medical College begins course without nod, admits one

It is an institute that grooms people to save lives. Would you believe then, that for the sake of the fees they could extract from one single student, the city's BJ Medical College went to the extent of 'commencing' a course they never had permission for?

Sordid as it sounds, this is exactly what transpired in the confines of this reputed medical college based in the city. And the reason behind this bold step was the confusion created by two colleges with similar names, which resulted in a Letter of Permission (LoP) being issued for one college, reaching the other.

The matter is this: There exists a BJ Medical College in Pune as well. And this college had apparently applied to the Medical Council of India (MCI) in April 2010, requesting permission to commence a diploma course in Orthopedics (D.Ortho).

Accordingly, based on the MCI's recommendations, the Ministry of Health and Family welfare granted the college permission to commence the course.

However, given that a college by the same name exists in Ahmedabad as well, confusion ensued, and the letter of permission ended up reaching the Ahmedabad-based college.

What is really surprising though, is the way the city-based BJ Medical college reacted to the mistake. Instead of notifying the ministry of the error, the college's dean chose to commence the said course on their own premises! Not only that, they even went ahead and admitted an MBBS student to the super-specialty course.

The matter would never have come to light, but for the fact that the Pune-based college, the one that had actually applied to commence the course, wrote to the ministry in November, wanting to know the status of their pending application. Accordingly, the ministry commenced investigations, which is when they came to know of the goof-up, and its consequences.

As of today, a notice dated December 20 from the ministry of health and family welfare has reached the Ahmedabad-based BJ Medical College, questioning the way the said diploma was commenced in the college in May 2010. According to the notice, this college was never given permission to begin such a course.

Thus, the college will have to call off the course, and discharge the student immediately. However, what happens of the unfortunate student admitted there, remains to be seen.