Parents and guardians of students who joined the 2026 MBBS batch under Meghalaya's state quota at P.A. Sangma International Medical College & Hospital (PIMC) in Shillong have raised an alarm with the state government, saying the college's financial troubles could threaten the quality of the medical education and clinical training their children were promised.
A memorandum to the health department
The parents put their concerns in writing to Dr Joram Beda, who serves as Commissioner and Secretary in Meghalaya's Health and Family Welfare department. In the note, they said they had toured the PIMC campus while their children were being admitted, and had seen for themselves the construction work underway on a superspeciality hospital, clinical departments, hostel blocks and other teaching and healthcare infrastructure.
What parents learned from campus officials
During that visit, meetings with the college's Chancellor and other senior functionaries left the parents with what they described as a clear picture of an "enormous financial crisis" gripping the institution, and of how badly PIMC needs outside support to finish building and running its facilities. Those facilities, ranging from hospital wards to specialist departments, form the backbone of the hands-on clinical exposure that a medical degree requires, and any slowdown in completing them would directly affect how well students are trained.
Loans, salaries and a widening cash crunch
The memorandum lays out how PIMC arrived at this point. The college has poured large sums into building its campus and has borrowed heavily from banks, on top of other financial commitments, to fund that expansion. Parents said that debt burden has already caught up with the institution, with PIMC struggling for several months to keep up with its loan instalments and falling behind on paying its own staff.
Even so, the parents were careful to say they support what PIMC is trying to build: a medical college offering solid training, exposure to advanced clinical work and modern hospital facilities for students drawn from Meghalaya and the rest of the Northeast. Their worry, they said, is narrower: that the money crunch now threatens to derail the very facilities and training the college promised when it enrolled them.
"Our primary concern is our children's future"
"Our primary concern is the quality education, clinical training and future of our children," the parents wrote in the memorandum. They noted that their children had enrolled at PIMC expecting a modern, well-equipped campus, and asked that the ongoing financial strain not be allowed to compromise coursework, hospital training or access to basic facilities.
What the parents are asking for
Beyond safeguarding academics, the group asked the state government to make sure families are not made to pay anything extra beyond the fees they have already committed to, purely because of PIMC's financial difficulties. They also pressed the government to release financial assistance so PIMC can settle its most urgent dues, finish pending construction and keep its teaching and clinical standards intact. The memorandum pointed to an earlier round of financial support that had reportedly been promised to the college, and asked that it be released without further delay.
Stakes for the 2026 batch
The parents argued that how quickly the government acts now will decide not just whether PIMC survives as an institution, but whether the students who joined its 2026 batch get the clinical training and career grounding they signed up for. They framed government assistance to PIMC as money well spent, calling it an investment in medical education and healthcare capacity for Meghalaya and the wider Northeast.
