The announcement has created a piquant situation for the 50 additional students since the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) had completed the admission process to these extra 50 seats before the MCI decision was conveyed to the state government via the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

However, senior government officials told Express Newsline that the MCI may reconsider its decision as both infrastructure and staff strength had improved considerably since the team inspected the college in May last year. They say the MCI is likely to inspect the college again, this week, and give the additional 50 seats thego-ahead.

The situation has sparked a fresh debate over who should shoulder the responsibility for the poor infrastructure and staff strength - the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, to which the college is affiliated or the state government, which appoints the staff and sanctions funds for infrastructure?

The matter was discussed at length at the Academic Council meeting of the university here today, where most members felt the MCI decision reflected poorly on the way the university manages its affairs.

The members also decided to write to the state government, the new University for Health Sciences and Research at Nashik, and the MCI, to ask the latter to reconsider its decision.

Dean of the Faculty for Medicine, Dr Ramdas Ambulgekar, said if colleges are unable to fulfill all the stringent criteria of the MCI, students from the region should not have to suffer.

Several Academic Council members, including those who represented the Engineering and Commerce faculties, said it isunfortunate that the staff position and infrastructure at the medical college had reached such a stage and asked the state government to take immediate steps to fill vacancies.

The debate also brought into sharp focus the role played by the Local Inquiry Committees (LICs) appointed by the university to periodically review the affiliation accorded to various colleges. ``If the staff and infrastructural situation at the medical college is not up to the mark, the LICs should have alerted the university through their reports, members said. Do the LICs perform their role with any seriousness or do they go about their task as a mere formality, members asked the vice-chancellor.

The debate also referred to the situation at private medical colleges in the region. Do private colleges provide better facilities than government-run institutions, some members asked. And why do they invariably get a favourable report by the MCI while government college get all the criticism, they wondered.

There were also obliquereferences to a senior member of the executive body of the MCI, who hails from the region. Why did this member not fight for the cause of Marathwada and prevent the MCI from taking such a decision? Was it to provide some kind of advantage to some private medical colleges, members asked.

Dean of the Medical College, Dr V L Deshpande, who also holds charge of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, told Express Newsline that the MCI inspectors had pointed out last year that the number of units in the Department of Surgery was inadequate. ``At that time, we had just two units while it is desirous that a college with an intake capacity of 150 students should have at least four units. But now that we have as many as four units with two more to be added soon, I hope the MCI will find the situation much improved,'' Dr Deshpande said.

As for infrastructural facilities at the hospital, he says they are comparable with any other government or private medical college anywhere in the state. He saysthe college has also appointed sufficient staff in skin and VD, Tuberclosis and Psychiatric departments.

However, maintaining staff strength at the college may not be quite as simple in future. Though the government had issued a number of advertisements inviting applications from candidates for the posts of professor and associate professor through the Maharashtra Public Services Commission, there were simply not enough takers, especially for departments like Surgery and Orthopaedics, sources reveal.