No permanent medical college campus after nearly two years, GMC Maheshwaram students threaten strike

Days after students of Government Medical College, Jagtial, staged protests over the lack of a permanent campus and hostel facilities, students of another government medical college have threatened an indefinite strike from October 22 over similar concerns. 

Nearly two years after classes began from a temporary facility, students of the Government Medical College (GMC), Maheshwaram, are still awaiting a permanent campus and hostels, with uncertainty persisting over their proposed relocation to the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) at L.B. Nagar in Hyderabad. They have been boycotting classes and clinical postings since October 12 to press for action on their long-pending grievances.

The students have sought a written clarification and time-bound action on a range of issues, including campus infrastructure, accommodation, transportation, food safety and facilities for clinical training.

Offline classes for the 2024 MBBS batch began on November 7 that year at the temporary campus of the Bharat Institute of Engineering and Technology (BIET) in Mangalpally. However, the college is yet to get a permanent academic campus or hostel buildings, the students said.

The 2024 batch had been assured that the campus would be shifted to TIMS, L.B. Nagar, within six months while the 2025 batch was promised relocation within two months. With three MBBS batches now associated with the college, the available facilities remained inadequate to meet their academic and clinical training requirements.

“We have held repeated meetings with officials at various levels, including three meetings with the Health Minister, but have seen little progress,” a student said.

Relocation uncertainty

The students sought clarity on the government’s plan to accommodate the college at TIMS, L.B. Nagar. They cited Government Order (GO) Ms. No. 190, dated December 23, 2024, which allocated TIMS, L.B. Nagar, to GMC Maheshwaram. They also referred to a statement made by Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha in the Legislative Assembly on March 25, this year, that the government had decided to accommodate the college at TIMS.

“During an earlier protest, we were assured that the relocation would take place by June or, at the latest, by December this year. We were also told that two floors of the existing TIMS building would be provided temporarily until a new campus is constructed. We were subsequently informed that TIMS is not being made available to the college and that the current batches might not be shifted there,” the student added.

Financial strain

The absence of permanent hostels for boys and girls has forced students to depend on private hostels and paying guest accommodation, costing approximately ₹7,500 to ₹10,000 a month, another student said.

They also raised concerns over poor lighting and inadequate security, affecting the safety of women students. The students also complained about poor food quality, instances of insects being found in food and meals not being available when engineering students had holidays.

The approximately 20-km distance between the academic campus and the teaching hospital requires students to commute around 40 km daily, making travel exhausting and public transportation difficult to manage, a student said.

“The college continues to depend on payment-based Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) bus services for clinical postings and field visits, resulting in recurring expenditure. The absence of a college-owned bus has also led to prescribed field visits being missed in some subjects,” the student added.

The students said assurances regarding their grievances had repeatedly been communicated verbally, without consistent written documentation or definite timelines. They are now seeking written commitments specifying clear deadlines, assigned responsibilities and a mechanism to review implementation.