'Identify framework to accommodate Ukraine-returned med students'

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday urged the Union government to identify an appropriate framework to accommodate Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine in Indian medical colleges.

"The medical students who have returned from Ukraine were anguished by the recent stand taken by the Union government in the Supreme Court. In the case filed by the students seeking accommodation in colleges in India, the Union government has informed the Supreme Court that Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine cannot be accommodated in medical colleges in India. This position has been taken citing that there is no provision in the National Medical Commission Act allowing it and such relaxation will hamper the standards of medical education in India." said Stalin, in a DO letter, written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Thousands of Indian students, who studied medicine in Ukraine, returned to India after a war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Stalin said that, initially, the Lok Sabha committee on External Affairs had recommended that the returned students can be accommodated in the medical colleges in India and the students were very hopeful, but the contrary stand taken by the Union government has dashed the hopes of the students. "This needs to be reconsidered. 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," said Stalin.

He also said that since the 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 which will allow the affected students to continue their education paying the same level of fees.

Stalin further urged the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to identify colleges and universities abroad suitable for the medical students under the academic mobility programme. "The 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. Considering that the students have already lost one year of their education, I request your urgent intervention in this regard,” said Stalin.