"2,158 medical seats have increased under Section 10A of Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 in the academic year 2019-20," said Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey in reply to BJP MP Manoj Rajoria's question in Lok Sabha on "whether the Government has any proposal to increase seats for Medical PG courses."
"A total of 72 government medical colleges in 21 states and Union Territories have been approved for increasing 4,058 postgraduate seats," he added.
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Mr Choubey said as per a notification released by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in July 2018 medical colleges have been allowed to convert their existing Diploma courses to PG courses.
"It resulted increase of 2148 post graduate seats in lieu of surrendering of equal number of existing Diploma Seats 2019-20," he said.
In a related question asked by Sunil Kumar Singh and Sudhakar Tukaram Shrangre on "whether the Post Graduate Diploma courses offered in the Medical Colleges across the country have been converted into degree courses," Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan said medical colleges have been allowed to seek equal number of postgraduate (MD/ MS) seats by surrendering recognized Diploma seats in corresponding course.
This conversion in seats has been done as per the amendment in Opening of a New or Higher Course of Study or Training (including Post-graduate Course of Study or Training) and Increase of Admission Capacity in any Course of Study or Training (including a Postgraduate Course of Study or Training) Regulations, 2000.
Dr Harsh Vardhan added that the 2148 PG Diploma seats of 686 courses in 115 colleges were converted to PG seats. In the process, 141 medical colleges had written to the Board of Governors, Medical Council of India for conversion of 2,697 PG Diploma seats. The Board repealed the request of 54 such colleges due to non-fulfillment of eligibility criteria.