Dental colleges rendered ‘toothless’

patna: only three out of seven dental colleges of bihar, including the government-owned patna dental college, patna have been granted permission to run the courses in the current academic session — 2001-2002 — by the dental council of india (dci). the dci order is applicable to government-owned colleges as well as the private ones. according to a status report on the dental colleges, issued by the dci and approved by the union health and family welfare ministry, four private colleges of bihar — namely saryug dental college, laheriasarai, darbhanga, dr sm naqvi imam dental college, bahera, darbhanga, darbhanga dental college, darbhanga and mithila minority dental college and hospital, darbhanga — have been barred from running courses for the current session for gross irregularities and lack of proper infrastructure.according to the report, these institutions have failed to conduct examinations for several years due to their non-affiliation or temporary affiliation granted by the ln mithila university, darbhanga. besides, the state government has also not accorded any permanent affiliation or recognition to these colleges. the dci has, however, permitted two private dental colleges — namely buddha institute of dental science, patrakar nagar, patna and dr br ambedkar institute of dental science and hospital, bailey road, patna — to continue with the courses in the current session after an investigation into the functioning of these colleges. incidentally, all the private dental colleges, barred from inviting fresh admissions, are located in the darbhanga district. of them, only saryug dental college, darbhanga has been “recognised� by the dci, while the remaining three have obtained its mere “approval�. however, all these colleges have been barred from running courses in the current session. “none of these colleges has the dci-specified infrastructure or the one for obtaining government recognition,� a source in the state medical education department said. sources said these institutions have already amassed huge donations through illegal admissions for the current academic year and are preparing to start courses for the next academic session although they have been debarred by the dci. they have also gone ahead with advertisements for the purpose, the sources added. the central government and the dci, in a circular dated march 20, 2002, have noted with great concern that all the four dental colleges in darbhanga district “are taking admissions through newspaper advertisements without following the procedure prescribed by the dci�. the circular has also advised the parents and the guardians to check up credibility and veracity of the dental colleges running in various parts of the country from the union health ministry and/or the dci before going ahead with the admission process. the status paper says that the dci has also debarred four private dental colleges in up, three in rajasthan, four in karnataka, two each in haryana, himachal pradesh and maharashtra and one each in orissa, punjab and tamil nadu from inviting admissions for the current session.