The Private Medical College and Dental College Bill, 2022 was passed in Parliament on Monday to ensure discipline in private medical and dental colleges by bringing those under a law instead of remaining under two separate guidelines.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque moved the Bill, and it was of course passed by voice vote.

The country’s private medical and dental colleges are now operated under the Private Medical College Establishment and Operation Guidelines, 2011 and Private Dental College Establishment and Operation Guidelines, 2009.

As per the bill, a private medical or dental college must have at least 50 students while its teachers-students ratio will have to be 1:10 as per the proposed law.

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

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

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

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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.

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, as per the proposed law.

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

Besides, private medical college or dental college authorities will have 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 Tk 10 lakh or both.

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