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By:

Rajendra Joshi

3 December 2024 at 3:50:26 am

Maharashtra Is Losing PG Seats and Medical Standards

As the Centre expands PG medical seats, Maharashtra is losing both seats and standards—amid faculty shortages and allegations of corruption in contractual appointments. Even as the Union government expands PG medical seats nationwide, Maharashtra is losing ground due to a chronic faculty shortage in government medical colleges. At Rajarshi Shahu Government Medical College, vacancies across seven departments have already cost 23 PG seats, with the total likely to rise to 40 as more seats...

Maharashtra Is Losing PG Seats and Medical Standards

As the Centre expands PG medical seats, Maharashtra is losing both seats and standards—amid faculty shortages and allegations of corruption in contractual appointments. Even as the Union government expands PG medical seats nationwide, Maharashtra is losing ground due to a chronic faculty shortage in government medical colleges. At Rajarshi Shahu Government Medical College, vacancies across seven departments have already cost 23 PG seats, with the total likely to rise to 40 as more seats remain unsanctioned. Kolhapur is no exception: a review of nearly 30 government medical colleges suggests Maharashtra may have lost over 600 PG seats to faculty shortages. A recent Maharashtra University of Health Sciences report underscores the crisis: of 25 colleges assessed, 10 had over 50 per cent teaching vacancies. The starkest case is Ratnagiri’s government medical college, where only 12 per cent of sanctioned faculty posts are filled and no department has a full professor. Newly established colleges in Parbhani and Satara fare little better, with faculty strength at 34 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. PG courses have yet to start, raising concerns over expansion and the quality of undergraduate training. Even among 17 colleges already offering PG education, faculty shortages remain acute. Infrastructure and students are in place, but PG approvals hinge on faculty strength. Under NMC norms, a professor can guide three PG students and an associate professor two, making the faculty a hard cap on capacity. Short System For decades, the State’s Directorate of Medical Education has relied on temporary faculty deputations to meet inspection norms—first under the Medical Council of India and now the National Medical Commission. Faculty were shifted across colleges before inspections and sent back later, a stopgap that masked structural gaps. The report flags the practice, but there is little sign of corrective action. Critics say the state continues to announce new medical colleges—often for political reasons—without adequate staffing. The result is a double blow: lost PG seats and a gradual decline in undergraduate medical education in a state once seen as a leader in the field. Built Before Staffed Would any school open before hiring teachers? The question is basic in primary education; in medical colleges, it is critical. Yet in Maharashtra, the sequence appears reversed. The National Medical Commission sets stringent norms for approving medical colleges, including faculty and infrastructure. Institutions must meet at least 95 per cent of these norms for approval. Yet Maharashtra seems to follow a different model—where political announcements come before preparedness. Medical colleges are declared, infrastructure is built, and approvals are secured—often by stretching compliance on paper. Only after admissions begin does the hunt for faculty start. The flaw is obvious: training a medical teacher takes nearly 27 years, making quick fixes impossible and leaving students to pay the price. The same report underscores the scale of the problem: not a single government medical college in the state meets prescribed faculty strength. Even Grant Medical College—one of the country’s oldest institutions—has a 10 per cent faculty shortfall, suggesting far deeper gaps elsewhere. In several colleges, contractual appointments are being used to patch vacancies. But the economics are untenable: the cost of medical education and the pay offered to contractual teachers do not align. Faculty hired on 11-month contracts often do not return, undermining continuity and quality. Unless permanent recruitment is prioritised and pay is aligned with market realities, the faculty deficit is unlikely to ease. One immediate remedy is ad hoc promotions, allowing departmental selection committees to move existing faculty up the hierarchy and open entry-level posts for young postgraduates as lecturers. The system was used earlier but has since fallen out of practice, while recruitment through the State Public Service Commission has also slowed. The fallout is already visible. AIIMS Nagpur has drawn faculty away from government colleges, offering nearly 1.5 times higher pay and greater job stability. State-run institutions, by contrast, continue to struggle with transfers, lower pay, and weak incentives—especially in rural areas. Teachers posted in cities are reluctant to move to rural Maharashtra, where lower housing allowances can cut salaries by up to Rs 40,000 and schooling options are limited. Without targeted incentives, attracting faculty to these regions will remain difficult. Cost of Opacity Even as the shortage deepens, allegations of malpractice persist. Transfers and temporary appointments are reportedly being used for rent-seeking, with some candidates allegedly paying a month’s salary for an 11-month contract. Such claims have surfaced in Kolhapur, where medical circles say payments are being sought for reappointments despite acute shortages. In one case, a teacher reportedly refused to pay and lost the post, only to later be selected through the Public Service Commission—raising troubling questions about merit being sidelined. Whether the state's medical education authorities investigate these allegations may show how deeply entrenched the practice is. (The writer is a senior journalist based in Kolhapur. Views personal.)

Unrest within Mahayuti

Updated: Jan 21, 2025

Mahayuti

Mumbai: The state administration on Sunday stalled the appointments of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik districts. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had cleared the appointments before he left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum on Saturday. They are believed to have been stalled on behest of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the state in absence of the Chief Minister.


NCP’s Aditi Tatkare and BJP’s Girish Mahajan were entrusted with responsibilities of guardian minister for the Raigad and Nashik districts respectively, where Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse had staked claims. Gogawale is a first-time minister while, Bhuse had been the guardian minister of the district during previous government under Eknath Shinde.


Shiv Sena, NCP and BJP all the three constituents of Mahayuti have strong roots in both the districts. However, the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been particularly on loggerheads there. The Shiv Sena, which had been demanding the guardian minister’s post in Nashik district has managed to win only two assembly seats in the district where the NCP has Six and the BJP has Five MLAs. On the contrary, in Raigad the NCP has won only one seat while the Shiv Sena and the BJP both have Three MLAs each in the district.


Sunil Tatkare, MP from Raigad Lok Sabha constituency and the stat unit president of the NCP and father of Aditi Tatkare, had been the guardian minister of Raigad between 2004 and 2014. Gogawale had always been his political opponent before Tatkare joined the Mahayuti government under Ajit Pawar’s leadership in 2023. Gogawale claimed that all the Six Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs in the district had opined in his favour to be the guardian minister of the district and after the decision to appoint Aditi Tatkare was announced, his supporters resorted to violent protests. They burnt tyres in bid to stall traffic on highway in the district. Reacting to the developments, Tatkare said that the issue should be pondered over after CM Fadnavis returns from Davos on Saturday and settled amicably.


In Nashik Girish Mahajan had been the guardian minister of the district between 2014 and 2019 when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.


The post of guardian minister doesn’t have any constitutional mandate and is considered to be a political appointment. Guardian ministers head the district planning and development councils (DPDC) that control the funds for development works being carried out in the particular district. This control wields much of political power to the minister in that district whereby spreading the party in the district becomes much easier. This is the reason why the grass root politicians seem to be very sensitive to such appointments.


While Gogawale and Bhuse are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian ministers, some others like NCP’s Hasan Mushrif and BJP’s Pankaja Munde are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian district in their home districts of Kolhapur and Beed respectively. DCM Shinde is learnt to have gone to his ancestral village Dare in Satara district after the decision and BJP’s firefighters Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Girish Mahajan are expected to meet him there to try finding a way out of the issue.

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