Six months after a group of BJP leaders decided to set up a self-financed medical college, Surat Municipal Commissioner S Jagadeesan has proposed the establishment of a similar institution.

However, the civic chief's proposal is not free of controversy. ``Instead of establishing a medical college, the Surat Municipal Corporation should upgrade its schools upto Standard XI. At present civic schools impart education only upto Standard VII'', said deputy mayor Snehlata Chauhan.However, she said she was not entirely opposed to the medical college proposal. ``In fact, I was one of the members of the elected wing, who along with Mayor Savita Sharda, Standing Committee chairman Ajay Choski and leader of the house Natu Soma Patel, went to Gandhinagar to demand a medical college for the city'', she said.

Former mayor Ajit Desai, too, was all for a medical college. ``It is not a question of choosing between a secondary school and a medical college. We need both. Along side a medical college, we should also upgrade our schools'', he said, adding that the SMC could also consider converting its Maskati Hospital into a medical college, especially since it had already acquired land in front of it.

Standing committee chairman Ajay Choksi said the civic body needed 25 acres of land and Rs 40 crores for a medical college. ``We want to find out how much grant the State government can provide and whether it can make the land available. We are just waiting for government assurance on this issue'', Choksi said.

One of its many positive fallouts of a medical college would be the 85 seats reserved for city students, Choksi added.