200 court cases pending against Punjab medical department

As per reports, as many as 200 court cases are pending against the Medical Education Department of Punjab, which hampers the functionality of the department.

Reportedly, the Punjab Medical Education Department is facing 200 pending court cases against it. Every decision of the department gets challenged in court.

As per the Tribune India report, sources say most of the decisions by the department, especially related to the promotions of faculty members get challenged in the court and the department's office has not replied to the court notices on time, hence the cases got delayed.

A senior professor of GMC, Patiala, said, "An inquiry should be conducted against the DRME officials about the decisions which couldn't not stand the judicial scrutiny and led to the financial burden on the state government."

Hussan Lal, Principal Secretary, Medical Education, said: “Steps are being taken to ensure that the litigation policy of the state government is implemented in letter and spirit to bring down the number. A majority of the litigations are that of admissions in the medical colleges and not of the department.”

Recently, a professor was accused of beating a medical student, and he was transferred from the Government Medical College (GMC), Patiala, to GMC, Amritsar, by the Principal Secretary. 

Punjab intends to open medical colleges in each district

The state government is planning to open medical colleges in each district of the state to increase the accessibility to quality medical education and healthcare services. Currently, Punjab has 12 medical colleges including four government, one under PPP mode and one Centre-run college.

Read more:

• Punjab govt to open medical colleges in each district
• India needs 550 new medical colleges by 2030 to match global average of doctors, says report