DHAKA, Aug 29, 2022 (BSS) - The Private Medical College and Dental College Bill 2022 today passed in the Jatiya Sangsad to bring private medical and dental colleges under a law from the existing two guidelines.

Health minister Zahid Maleque on Monday moved the bill in the House which was unanimously passed by voice votes with Jatiya Sangsad Deputy Speaker Shamsul Huq Tuku in the chair.

Placing the bill, the minister said the private medical and dental colleges in Bangladesh now operate under the Private Medical College Establishment and Operation Guidelines 2011 and Private Dental College Establishment and Operation Guidelines 2009.

As per the bill, a medical or dental college must have at least 50 students while its teacher-student ratio must be 1:10.

A medical college needs to have at least 2 acres of land in any metropolitan area while the land requirement for the dental college is 1 acre.

For setting up a medical college outside any metropolitan area, the land requirement is four acres and it is two acres for a dental college.

After placing the bill, Jatiya Party lawmakers Pir Fazlur Rahman, Fakhrul Imam, Barrister Shamim Haider Patwary, Begum Rawshan Ara Mannan, Kazi Feroz Rashid, BNP lawmaker Harunur Rashid and Gono Forum lawmaker Mokabbir Khan discussed on the bill and urged the parliament to send the bill for seeking further review.

For a medical college, an amount of Taka 3 crore will have to be deposited with any commercial bank and Taka 2 crore for any dental college as reserve funds.

The proposed law says any medical college must have one lakh square feet of space for academic purposes and another one lakh square feet of space for hospital purposes. For a dental college, the hospital space has to be 50,000 square feet each.

The authorities concerned will inspect such colleges and hospitals from time to time.

The medical and dental colleges will have to be affiliated with any public university.

The government will fix the academic fees for medical and dental colleges.

Besides, private medical colleges or dental college authorities will have to dispose of their wastes in a scientific manner.

In the case of violation of the law, the maximum punishment will be two years of imprisonment or a fine of Taka 10 lakh or both.

Currently, there are 70 private medical colleges and 26 private dental colleges in the country.