North Bengal Medical College is located in Siliguri

Siliguri

Siliguri is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck - a very narrow strip of land linking mainland India to its north-eastern states. It is also the transit point for air, road and rail traffic to the neighbouring countries of Nepal,...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is the largest healthcare facility in the North Bengal region of West Bengal serving as a tertiary referral institute and has teaching programs for graduation and postgraduation. It is one of the nine government medical colleges in West Bengal. The hospital has a bed strength of 599 and caters to a large population of 15 million in North Bengal and many more from the surrounding states of north east India and the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Location

North Bengal Medical College is located in Sushrutanagar, to the west of Siliguri, connected to the town by the 3rd Mahananda bridge. Sushrutanagar, otherwise referred to as ‘medical’ by the local people, is more or less 5 km from the Siliguri town proper.

History

Principals
Prof A K Dutta gupta Dr. S C Laha Dr. L K Ganguli Dr. J N Bhadury Dr. S K Biswas Dr. A K Ram Dr. A Nandy Dr. P K Gupta Dr. S P Banerjee Dr. G K Das Dr. P K Mukherjee Dr. A K Kar Dr. S K Basu Dr. B Sarkar Dr. Dipti Basu Dr. Udayan Ganguly Dr. Utpal Kumar Dutta Dr. Sangita Bhattacharyya Dr. J B Saha

It was established in 1968 as the first medical college of North Bengal. Originally envisioned by Dr. B. C. Roy, the planning was executed by Ajit Kumar Panja

Ajit Kumar Panja

Ajit Kumar Panja was a former Union minister of state in the Government of India. He was a member of Congress party but left it to join Trinamool Congress. He was born in Calcutta and studied law at the Scottish Church College, Calcutta and at the Lincoln's Inn. A lawyer by profession, he...

, the then state health minister. Prof. Ajit Kr. Duttagupta joined as the first official principal of the college which was then known as North Bengal University Medical College. NBUMC was rechristened in August 1978 to North Bengal Medical College & Hospital and the administrative control went from North Bengal University to Govt. of West Bengal.

The first batches

The premedical classes started on 6.11.67 in a makeshift arrangement at Jackson medical school, Jalpaiguri. 2nd to 6th batch of students undertook their premedical course at Raigunj University College. 7th batch onwards, the students started their premedical course at NBMC campus, Sushrutanagar, their own place.

Classes for 1st year MBBS course for 1st batch started on 18.11.68 in NBU campus. MBBS classes started in Sushrutanagar, the present site of NBMC in 1972. The first 5 batches had to migrate to SSKM hospital for their clinical lessons after passing 2nd prof. First 2 batches completed internship and housemanship there. The college got its recognition from the Medical Council of India

Medical Council of India

The Medical Council of India was the statutory body for maintenance of uniform and high standards of medical education in India. The Council grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical colleges, grants registration to medical practitioners, and monitors medical...

 in 1978.

Campus

The college and hospital buildings, spread over a sprawling campus of 161 acre (0.65154446 km²), are connected by very long corridors which total a length of 2.6 km. The North Bengal Dental College and the Nursing Training College are also located in the same campus.

Affiliation

The college was affiliated to the North Bengal University since its inception. Starting from the 2003 admission batch, it is formally affiliated to the newly formed West Bengal University of Health Sciences

West Bengal University of Health Sciences

The West Bengal University of Health Sciences has been set up by an Act of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in the year 2003 for better management of the health and medical education related courses which were so far taught separately by the University of Calcutta, and the Universities of...

.

Admission

Admission to this government medical college is through competitive entrance exams.

Out of the 100 MBBS seats, 15% of the seats are filled through the All India Pre-Medical Test. The rest are admitted through the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination

West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination

West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination or the WB-JEE is a state-government controlled centralised test for admission to many private and governmental medical and engineering institutions in West Bengal. The test is taken after the 12th grade for admission to graduation courses...

 (Medical) which sees more than 60,000 students from the state compete every year. The WBJEE closing rank for admission to this college stays around 750. Reservation for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes exist, as it is a government institution, to the extent of almost 28%.

For postgraduate courses one has to clear the West Bengal Postgraduate Medical Entrance or All India Postgraduate Medical Entrance Examination.

Academics

The courses offered are:

• M.B.B.S. (Annual intake of 100 students)
• MD Pathology
• MD Anasthesiology
• MD Anatomy
• MD Physiology
• MD Community Medicine
• MD Pediatrics
• MD Medicine
• MS Surgery
• MD Gynecology and Obstetrics
• MS Orthopaedics

Paramedical and Technician

• DMLT ... Diploma in Medical Lab Technology
• DPT ... Diploma in Physical Medicine

Hospital Services

• Outdoor Outdoor services
• Indoor services
• Counseling
• Diagnostic & Investigation

Students

Every year 100 students graduate from the college. Besides, there are postgraduate students in various streams. Most students are from outside Siliguri and stay in the campus hostels.

Student's Body

The North Bengal Medical College Students Union aka NBMCSU is the student's representative body. The union is responsible for conducting major student activities like cultural programmes and sports tournaments, allocating hostel rooms through lottery, conducting welfare programmes like blood donation camps and preparing and printing study notes.

Politics

TMCP is the major party and holds the union while DSO and SFI are too minor a force to reckon with.

• The annual election to form the Students' Union is presided by the Dean of Students Affairs.

Cultural Programmes

• The annual inter-college fest Plasma spanning 4 days is held in the month of September. It is a big event with noted artists performing and students displaying their creative fervour. Other than NBMC students, Plasma also sees active participation by students from nearby colleges like North Bengal Dental College, Siliguri Institute of Technology
  Siliguri Institute of Technology
  Siliguri Institute of Technology is a Graduate Engineering and Management College that was established in the year 1999 in Siliguri , West Bengal, India...
  
  , North Bengal University, Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College
  Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College
  The Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, abbreviated as JGEC, is an institute for technical education in the state of West Bengal in India...
  
  .

• The ex-students re-union Nostalgia is held in the post weekend of 18th November o every year for two days in a row.

• The freshers' welcome takes place every year to greet the new batch of MBBS students.

• Students celebrate Saraswati
  Saraswati
  In Hinduism Saraswati , is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts, science and technology. She is the consort of Brahma, also revered as His Shakti....
  
   Puja every year in traditional style.

• Rabindra Jayanti is another annual event marking the birthday anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

• The college Foundation Day is observed every year on 18 November.

The college students have formed their own bands. Umami and Whistling Woods and {ntoxication are the most famous in the campus. Intoxication(2011) is the most famous band right now

External links

• North Bengal Medical College - Student site
• NBMC Ex Students Association