Reconsider stand on medical students from Ukraine, M.K. Stalin requests PM Modi

In a letter, he asks PM to admit students in private medical colleges as a one-time measure

Opposing the Centre's position on not permitting medical students who returned from war-torn Ukraine to complete their course in India, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Union Government to reconsider its stand. He requested Mr. Modi for admitting the students in private medical colleges as a one-time measure.

In the case filed by medical students before the Supreme Court seeking accommodation in colleges in India, the Union Government informed that Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine could not be accommodated in colleges in India. The Centre had said there was no provision allowing it in the National Medical Commission Act, and that such a relaxation would hamper the standards of medical education in India.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr. Stalin said the Lok Sabha committee on External Affairs had recommended that the returned students could be accommodated in medical colleges in India and the students were very hopeful. However, the contrary stand taken by the Union Government has dashed the hopes of these students. This needs to be reconsidered, Mr. Stalin said.

"If accommodating such returned students in government medical colleges is deemed difficult, I request that these students can be accommodated in private colleges by creating additional seats as a one-time measure," Mr. Stalin contended.

Since these students sought education in Ukraine due to their inability to pay the higher fees in private medical colleges in India, "a special dispensation may be considered in the form of a comparable fee structure in private medical colleges" in India, similar to the fees paid by the students abroad, Mr. Stalin suggested.

The Chief Minister requested the Union Ministries of External Affairs and the Health and Family Welfare to actively identify colleges and universities abroad, suitable for the medical students under the academic mobility programme. "This process of identifying appropriate colleges and accommodating our students needs to be centrally coordinated rather than leaving it to individual students to scout for colleges in various countries. An appropriate framework may kindly be put in place for this process," he said.