To protest against alleged malpractices and corruption in the admission process of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), hundreds of medical students across the state held a candlelight protest on Saturday.
As alleged by students, the CPS manipulates the admission process by taking a huge sum of money, which it prefers over educational parameters. Taking this into consideration, the Maharashtra Medical Council and Indian Medical Association have written to the state health department to take adequate steps to stop such misconduct; but so far, the government has taken no steps.
“Just two days back we were told by Dr P.H. Shingare, director of DMER that he would scrap the entire CPS if it is found corrupt. But now, he is saying that it doesn’t come under his jurisdiction,” said Dr Sagar Mundada, president of MARD.
MARD has demanded the inclusion of CPS admission in the government’s DMER-conducted CET examination to bring about transparency. “We give the government a deadline of one week to act by including CPS admissions under its own ambit. Failing to do so, MARD will take extreme measures,” said Dr Mundada.
As claimed by the student association, according to the rules, if the CPS is formed under the charity commissioner, it should be a non-profit body. But they are taking hefty fees from students and using the same for their own private purposes. “The very fact that they had an income tax return of Rs 3.5 crore shows the extent of their non-profit nature. At every step, they are extorting money from students. As a result, the quality of doctors coming out us bad and ultimate sufferers is patients,” he added.
The IMA has also raised doubts about the authenticity of the examinations conducted by the CPS.
“CPS is just an examination body, but today the CET paper is set by CPS members, and the examination is conducted and papers corrected by its members. All these activities are done without any scrutiny by any outside authority,” stated the letter sent by Dr Jayesh Lele, president of the IMA to Vinod Tawde, minister, medical education.
