New mgmt in saddle, Gian Sagar looks for fresh start

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 1

Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital in Banur, which was closed in 2017 due to fiscal mismanagement, is once again on the path of revival after a Gurugram-based group dealing in real estate and automobile business has taken over its management. The college was originally owned by Nirmal Singh Bhangu, the main accused in Rs 45,000 crore chit fund scam by the Pearl Group.

After taking over the college’s Rs 200 crore liabilities, the new management was successful in getting the Medical Council of India and Punjab Government’s approval to admit 150 students for the MBBS course from this academic session.

It’s not only Gian Sagar Medical College which shut down in 2017. Similar was the fate of Chintpurni Medical College in Pathankot. While fiscal mismanagement was the reason for the closure of the Banur-based college, the Pathankot college was closed for various anomalies.

The closure of both colleges was not only the loss of 300 MBBS seats to medical aspirants, it also left the Department of Medical Education and Research in a difficult situation when it had to shift about 700 MBBS students of Gian Sagar Medical College and 250 students of Chintpurni Medical College to other colleges in the state for the completion of their courses.

Besides the shift causing extensive academic loss to the students of both colleges, the students were deprived of Rs 9,000 per month stipend in the last year of their course.

One of the old staff members and Dean of Gian Sagar College AS Sekhon said the new management had paid the old pending power bills and salaries and had already started work to rebuild the college.