Belgaum: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has reportedly cleared the Government's proposal to establish medical colleges in Belgaum and Mandya, according to highly placed sources in Bangalore.

Sources in the Government told The Hindu that the executive committee of the MCI, which met in New Delhi on Monday morning, cleared the proposals and recommended to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take up further procedures.

The previous government, of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), had proposed to establish six medical colleges — in Bidar, Raichur, Belgaum, Shimoga, Hasan and Mandya. Given the infrastructure available for what has been named Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS), the Government was confident of starting classes from the academic year 2006-07.

But the MCI teams, which visited the State on June 6 and inspected facilities at the new colleges, reportedly refused to approve the proposal. Representatives of the Government took up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to Bangalore and urged him to consider the proposal. They told Dr. Singh that infrastructure had been created for colleges, particularly those in Belgaum and Mandya.

A three-member team of the MCI visited BIMS on July 1 after the State Government took steps to improve infrastructure and submitted a "compliance report" to the Centre.

Medical Education Minister V.S. Acharya said he received a note at 1.15 p.m., when he was attending proceedings in the Legislative Assembly, that the MCI had cleared the proposals to establish medical colleges in Belgaum and Mandya. However, Dr. Acharya said he could not make a categorical statement on the matter as he was awaiting a letter from the Union Government granting permission to start the new colleges this year.

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