New Delhi: The Union government has told Lok Sabha that there is no permission from the National Medical Commission (NMC) – the regulatory body of medical education in the country – to accommodate Indian students who returned from Ukraine in the medical colleges in the country.Earlier this year, a number of Indian students pursuing medicine in various colleges in the war-ravaged Ukraine returned home. At that time several appeals were made to the Union government to accommodate such students in medical colleges in the country.The latest information from the government indicates that the possibility of absorbing such students into local medical colleges can only be done after clearing qualifying exams. The information was disclosed by the Union minister of state for health and family welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar, in response to queries posed in Lok Sabha on Friday, July 22.The returnee students will have to comply with Screening Test Regulations, 2002 or Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, as required normally. This means war-affected students who were pursuing medical education in Ukraine but had to leave due to the emerging situation will get no special treatment as was expected earlier.Pawar, in a written reply, said that “foreign medical students/graduates are either covered under Screening Test Regulations, 2002 or Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021 as the case may be”.The minister added that “there are no such provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 as well as the Regulations to accommodate or transfer medical students from any foreign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges”.“No permission has been given by the NMC to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students in any Indian medical institute/ university,” the minister said.On the question specifically whether the West Bengal government had accommodated more than 400 such students in medical colleges in the state, Pawar responded that his ministry did not have any such information.“NMC, for the betterment of Indian student pursuing medical studies abroad, vide circular dated 04.03.2022 has allowed foreign medical graduates with incomplete internship due to such compelling situation which is beyond their control such as war, Covid 19, etc., to complete their remaining part of their internship in India subject to the condition that such candidates must have cleared FMGE (Screening Test), which is mandatory for Indian students with foreign medical qualification to practice medicine in India,” the minister said responding to query by Trinamool Congress MP Adhikari Deepak.In March, the minister had in response to queries raised by several MPs on how the government would deal with medical students returning from Ukraine and China stated that he would have to mandatorily clear qualifying exams.“Section 14 of the NMC Act, 2019 prescribes conducting of a uniform entrance examination namely National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to all medical educational institutions at undergraduate and post-graduate level.Also, Clause 8 (iv) of Eligibility Requirement for Taking Admission in an Undergraduate Medical Course in a Foreign Medical Institution Regulation, 2002 provides for that any Indian citizens/ overseas citizen of India intending to obtain primary medical qualification from any medical institution outside India, on or after May 2018, shall have to mandatorily qualify the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for Admission to MBBS course,” he had said.He had added that “the result of the NEET shall deem to be treated as the Eligibility Certificate for such persons and no separate permission (is) required from NMC”.Indian students who returned from Ukraine due to the war have been urging the government to let them continue their courses in local medical colleges.
