The Union health ministry has denied 82 existing medical colleges renewal permission for the academic session of 2018-19. The ministry has stopped 12 government and 70 private medical colleges from taking in new students for the upcoming batch, blocking anywhere between 10,000 to 12,000 MBBS seats.

The government has also denied permission for the establishment of 68 new medical colleges, 31 government and 37 private, axing another potential 9000 MBBS seats.

Nine medical colleges, four government and five private, were stopped from expanding their seats by at least 50 seats each.

31 medical colleges were barred from either starting new super speciality courses, such as those in cardiology, nephrology, plastic surgery, etc. or expanding seats in existing courses.

The list included Lucknow's King George Medical College University, stopped from expanding or starting MCh (Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery) and MCh (Neurosurgery), Christian Medical College Vellore, disallowed courses in MCh (Reproductive Medicine& Surgery), DM (Nephrology), DM (Pediatrics Neurology), Institute of Liver & Billiary Sciences, New Delhi, disallowed DM (Hepatology), MCh (HPB Surgery) and DM (Pediatrics Hepatology), etc.

The decisions came after assessment by the Medical Council of India, the apex government body in charge of medical education and ethics. The loss of seats is bound to hit the lakhs of aspiring medical students, already fighting for seats that are not nearly enough in number to accommodate all of them.