Raising concern over the shortage of faculty in medical colleges in J&K, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today asked Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to raise retirement age of teachers.
"I request Omar Abdullah...I have written to every CM and almost 60 per cent of the CMs have increased the age limit, but in J&K it is still 58 years," Azad said.
He said most of the medical colleges fail to get recognition from the Medical Council of India (MCI) because of the lack of faculty and insisted that the state needs to take measures in this regard.
"There has been no improvement in the faculty. The four medical colleges which are present in our state are purely running because of intercession, otherwise all the four will be rejected (by the MCI)," he said.
Azad was speaking at a foundation laying ceremony of a medical sciences institute at Jeevan Nagar, about 15 kms from here.
Abdullah, who was also present, said a proposal to increase the retirement age was being discussed but he pointed out that the move might have a negative impact on other sections of state administration.
"A proposal in this regard is before the cabinet but we don't want to take any decision in haste," Omar said.
The CM, however, admitted that without making any changes in the retirement age it would be difficult to run these colleges.
"I agree that without increasing the retirement age we won't be able to run these colleges and we don't want to run them on anyones mercy. We don't want to use Article 370 (which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir), we want to build the institutions on our own," Omar said adding, the government will take all the necessary steps in this regard.
Emphasising on lack of doctors in the state, Azad said that the intake capacity of the medical colleges in J&K was far less as compared to the other states.
He pointed out that despite the MCI increasing the number of intake capacity from 150 to 250, the institutions in J&K were still enrolling only 100 students (per batch).
