JAIPUR, Aug. 15 -- Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday alleged that medical colleges' tendency to race among themselves to secure recognition was causing basic infrastructure to be neglected. In a post on X, Gehlot questioned the utility of recognitions in the face of worsening quality of medical education. He cited alleged cases of medical colleges being opened without proper hospitals, or with patient numbers too low to facilitate practical exposure. "Medical colleges are being recognised one after another, but basic questions are being ignored," he said He added the problem was not limited to private institutions and claimed that government medical colleges in Rajasthan were also facing a serious shortage of faculty. Institutions sometimes arrange faculty from elsewhere during inspections by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to obtain recognition, he alleged. Gehlot said the issue was not confined to Rajasthan and pointed to alleged irregularities in the wider medical education system across the country. Referring to the CBI's action against officials of the Union health ministry and the NMC in connection with alleged bribery for granting approval to private medical colleges, he said the episode had highlighted the seriousness of the problem. Gehlot called upon the Centre, the NMC and state governments to clarify whether the faculty and infrastructure shown by medical colleges during the recognition process existed on ground. "When the situation in such a critical field as medicine is like this, the question is what will happen to the credibility of India's medical science," he said. No central or state government representative offered a response to Gehlot's comments till late on Friday....