National Medical Commission Limits Number Of MBBS Seats In A State

In a move to limit crowding of medical colleges in a state, National Medical Commission has restricted the number of undergraduate seats in each state to 100 million per population. The provision of limiting the seats in each state has been announced in a recently released notification. 

With this ratio there will be potential for addition of about 40,000 MBBS seats in country if the medical colleges are evenly distributed, added the notification. The move is expected to reduce regional disparities in availability of healthcare professionals and ensure effective quality of education.
"Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) at the National Medical Commission (NMC) is committed to providing a medical education system that improves access to quality and affordable medical education, ensures availability of adequate and high-quality medical professionals in all parts of the country; that promotes equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and makes services of medical professionals accessible to all the citizens," read the notification. 

The move was introduced after various courts made observations on crowding of medical colleges. 
For instance recently, Madurai bench of Madras High court has cautioned the National Medical Commission against crowding of medical colleges. Taking these aspects into consideration, the commission included the provision of limiting undergraduate seats in each State in the recently notified MSR guidelines 2023.

All the Southern states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh opposed these new NMC rules for setting up new medical colleges. Kerala, on the other hand, decided to seek relaxation on the basis of specific requirements.