Twenty MBBS seats earmarked for State
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 06 2014 :
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has allotted 20 MBBS seats from the Central pool to the State for the academic session 2014-15 .
A well placed source, however, informed that the Health Directorate officials are caught in a dilemma regarding seat distribution on account of the Health Ministry's strict instruction to reserve 15 per cent of the 20 seats for Scheduled Castes.
Earlier, MBBS seats allotted to the State from Central pool were distributed among General, ST and SC in accordance with the State Government's reservation policy.
As per the State reservation policy, ST got 31 per cent and SC got 2 per cent of the MBBS seats allotted from the Central pool.
On the other hand, the Health Ministry issued a guideline in December 1986 regarding distribution of MBBS seats allotted to States from Central pool.
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According to this guideline, 15 per cent seats should be reserved for SC and 7.5 for ST.
With the Health Directorate complying with the State reservation policy, SC students got less seats than prescribed by the Health Ministry since the past many years.
Subsequently, Scheduled Caste people of Kakching filed a complaint with the Health Ministry.
Acting on the complaint, the Health Ministry sent a written intimation on July 17 last to the Health Director which categorically stated that MBBS seats allotted from the Central pool should not be distributed based on the State reservation policy but in accordance with the Ministry's guideline.
Generally, MBBS seats are distributed among different categories after clubbing together the State's own medical seats and those received from the Central pool.
But the Health Ministry's intimation instructed that distribution of MBBS seats received from the Central pool should be effected separately.
After consulting with the Law Department, the Government of Manipur wrote a letter to the Health Ministry with a proposal to follow the State reservation policy as practised in the past.
The Health Ministry sent its reply on August 1 stating that the State's reservation policy cannot be applied in the distribution of MBBS seats allotted from the Central pool.
The Ministry also sought a report on the matter and it should be submitted as soon as possible.
Apart from 20 MBBS seats, two BDS seats were also allotted to the State from the Central pool for the academic session 2014-15.But the Health Directorate officials are still unable to decide on the mode and pattern of seat distribution.
They are also apprehensive that adhering to the Ministry's guideline after being sidelined for the past many years may stir a big controversy.
However the Health Ministry is determined to see that its guideline is followed this time.
Given this tricky situation, the State Government needs to take a concrete decision otherwise the problem of MBBS seat distribution may snowball into a bigger issue, added the source.