Published Oct 30, 2026 | 2:30 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 30, 2026 | 2:30 PM
Geotagged photographs verified by South First show mattresses spread across a hall, with bags and personal belongings stacked along the walls.
Synopsis: Fifty first-year MBBS students at Government Medical College, Mulugu, in Telangana, have been sleeping on mattresses spread across a hall because the college lacks adequate hostel accommodation. Students have also complained about poor sanitation, inadequate teaching staff, substandard mess food and a shortage of basic facilities. Principal Dr Swarna Kumari confirmed that students had slept on the floor but maintained that this had lasted only one day.
Securing a medical college seat takes years of preparation, long hours of study and fierce competition among thousands of candidates. For many students and their families, admission to a government medical college is the fulfilment of a long-held aspiration.
But for the 50 students who joined the 2026 batch at Government Medical College (GMC), Mulugu, in Telangana, the first few days at the institution were spent looking for a place to sleep.
Instead of beds and furnished hostel rooms, the students said they had to spread their own mattresses on the floor and keep their suitcases and belongings beside them.
Geotagged photographs verified by South First show mattresses spread across a hall, with bags and personal belongings stacked along the walls.
College principal Dr Swarna Kumari said that the students had slept on the floor for only one day and that beds had since been arranged.
Government Medical College (GMC), Mulugu
“For one day, it was the first day, so they were sleeping, but now we have adjusted all the beds,” she told South First.
The college has been borrowing beds from the nursing students’ accommodation until the government supplies new ones. Dr Swarna Kumari said the college had received a purchase order for the beds.
“We are adjusting from the nursing college, but the government is going to give that. Till that time, we are adjusting the bed,” she said.
Students, however, disputed her account of how long the new batch had been without beds. Anish (name changed), a third-year student, said the 2026 batch students had been at the college for four to five days.
“They came and went back. Then they came again and they are sleeping like this. It’s been four to five days,” he told South First.
“Today [30 October] is the fifth day.”
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GMC Mulugu is currently functioning from three blocks of a newly constructed government hospital building that has not yet started operating as a hospital. The administration, academic departments, laboratories and student accommodation are all being managed in the building, while the existing district hospital continues to function separately.
“We don’t have a separate building for hostels, we don’t have a separate building for college,” Anish said.
The college admitted its first batch of 50 MBBS students in 2024. With another batch joining in 2025 and 50 more in 2026, its student strength has grown to approximately 150.
Anish said the infrastructure available when the first batch arrived was adequate for 50 students. The subsequent admission of another batch was manageable, but the arrival of the third batch has exposed the shortage of accommodation.
“When we came, everything was there for us, for just 50 members. When juniors came, when the next batch came, it was manageable,” he said.
The latest batch has been accommodated in A block, which houses the college administration. Boys have been placed there, while the college still lacks proper hostel accommodation for girls.
“When the sub-juniors came, they did not have beds. They are managed in A block, that is the administrative block, for boys. We don’t have proper hostels for girls,” Anish said.
The shortage has also left the new students approaching their seniors for help.
“The juniors are coming and complaining to us. They are saying that we need some beds,” he said.
When students raised the issue with the administration, they were told that there was no money to buy the required beds.
“They are saying that there are no funds. From where will we bring the money?” Anish said.
According to Anish, construction of a dedicated medical college building began around six months ago. Until the new building is ready, students will continue to depend on the hospital building for their academic and residential needs.
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Students also complained about poor sanitation, accumulated garbage and a lack of cleaning staff.
Hospital sanitation workers who had been maintaining the premises reportedly stopped doing so after the hospital superintendent told the college to arrange its own workforce.
“When the superintendent sir came, he said that you should be having your own workers. We won’t send our workers,” Anish said.
Students also complained about poor sanitation, accumulated garbage and a lack of cleaning staff.
With no cleaning staff available, students said they were left to clean their own rooms, while dust and garbage accumulated in the surrounding areas.
The conditions also affected students preparing for examinations, Anish said. With garbage piling up outside and dust spreading across the premises, students pooled their money to hire sanitation workers.
“During our exam days, we can’t concentrate due to this bad environment, very bad, full dustbin, full dust outside. So we made our money together and we bought sanitation workers,” he said.
“But how long can we do that? Our parents will ask.”
Anish said the college subsequently arranged workers at ₹200 a day to clean the washrooms and corridors. Students, however, continue to clean their own rooms.
He also accused the college administration of repeatedly promising to take up their complaints with the district administration without any visible progress.
“Every time we go and say something, she will say, I wrote a letter to the Collector, I wrote a letter to the Collector, I wrote a letter to the Collector,” he said.
“Nothing is going on with the letter. No progress. No one is caring about us, literally,” he added.
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Students have also raised concerns about the shortage of teaching faculty, particularly in subjects prescribed for the third-year MBBS course.
The third-year curriculum includes Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (FMT), Community Medicine, Ophthalmology and ENT. Students said the college lacked dedicated heads of departments and adequate teaching staff for FMT and Community Medicine.
“For now, we have each one, one or two. They are managing with the hospital faculty,” Anish said.
In the absence of dedicated faculty, doctors working in the hospital are being asked to take classes in subjects they had studied during their MBBS course. Anish said a doctor from a hospital department could be assigned to teach a particular topic in Community Medicine despite not being part of the college’s regular teaching faculty.
Students want the dedicated medical college building completed as soon as possible.
“Now I am working in the hospital, for example, let me say, I am a paediatrics doctor. I also studied MBBS, so I will know the subject of Community Medicine. So they are allotting me to teach medical students for one class, for one topic,” he explained.
Students said such ad hoc arrangements left gaps in teaching, particularly when it came to covering the syllabus and preparing them for examinations. Hospital doctors taking occasional classes, they said, could not provide the sustained academic guidance expected from dedicated faculty.
“But they can’t look about our exams, main questions, main topics, long books and all,” Anish said.
The principal, Dr Swarna Kumari, disputed the students’ account of faculty availability. She told South First that the college had teachers for its existing batches.
“The faculty is also there. At least for the first year, second year, we have faculty,” she said.
Asked whether all three batches had teachers, she replied: “Yes, they are there.”
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Students have also complained about the quality of food served in the college mess, which is run by an outside contractor. Anish said replacing the earlier contractor after repeated complaints had not improved the food.
“Before there was a mess, there was another contractor. We complained to the principal ma’am in the second year, and we were like, we need a new one. When the new one came, it became much worse,” he said.
Students said they could not keep approaching the contractor to complain about the food.
“We can’t, every time, go and ask them,” Anish added.
The principal, Dr Swarna Kumari, rejected the complaints about food quality.
“Mess food is good,” she told South First.
The accommodation shortage has also affected nursing students housed in the same building. According to the MBBS students, the premises earlier accommodated around 170 nursing students, but half of them have since been shifted to private hostels outside the campus.
“They are also supposed to have something like this, like a hostel building, but they are also not getting,” Anish said.
The nursing students, too, face a shortage of hostel accommodation, while their options for raising complaints remain limited, he added.
Students want the dedicated medical college building completed as soon as possible. Until then, they want the administration to provide basic facilities, including beds, cots, sanitation workers and proper classrooms.
“We need our building as soon as possible. But they need to provide the basic facilities like sanitation workers and beds and cots for new students,” Anish said.
“We need proper classroom, lecture hall facilities.”
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
