PMT cancellation: Who is making an issue?
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 21, 2013 -

The conduct of Pre-Medical Test (PMT) for selection of State nominees for admission in various medical colleges has never been free from controversy in Manipur.

But the cancellation of Manipur MBBS/BDS Entrance Examination, 2013 just two days ahead of its schedule following a State Cabinet decision taken on June 6 but made official only a day after, and the resultant face-off between the Government and the All Manipur MBBS/BDS 2013 Entrance Examination Parents/Guardians’ Association, a body formed by parents of the medical aspirants, has taken the controversy to a new level this time with endless rounds of argument and counter-argument from both sides.

While the parents/guardians’ association has filed a case in the high court, the Government has stuck to its stand that the decision on cancellation of PMT was taken in accordance to an order of the Supreme Court issued on May 13 last and so the selection of State nominees for admission to MBBS/BDS courses has to be done based on the results of the National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test for Under Graduate Courses (NEET – UG), a National-level common entrance test (CET) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) under the initiative of Medical Council of India (MCI) to facilitate a single window opportunity to all medical aspirants.

At this junction, it would be difficult to say what would be the outcome of the court case or whether the State Government would retract its stand, as demanded by the parents/guardians’ body.

But there are definitely some merits behind the demand of the agitating parents/guardians’ association even though Health and Family Welfare Minister Phungzathang Tonsing has assertively stated that it is just an outcry by people who are naïve on the issue and no one should try to make an issue out of it.

Here, we are made to wonder who is being naïve on the issue, the agitating parents/guardians’ body or the State Government.

The latter has been consistently harping on the Supreme Court ruling of May 13, 2013, which, in fact, was an interim order related to lifting of the bar imposed by the apex court on 13th December, 2012, from announcing the results of the medical entrance examinations already conducted to enable the students to take advantage of the same for the current year.

Presuming that all the 151 cases finally landed in the Supreme Court challenging the notification issued by the MCI on December 27, 2010 with regard to NEET-UG would be completed sooner, the apex court had earlier ruled that MCI, Dental Council of India, as well as the States and Universities and other institutions would be entitled to conduct their respective medical entrance examinations but the results were not to be declared until further orders from it.

Accordingly, the examinations were held as scheduled and the results kept withheld pending final judgment of the apex court. However, as the hearing of the cases could not be completed and there was no possibility of pronouncing the final verdict before the close of the court for summer vacations, the Supreme Court had issued the interim order.

Nowhere in the said interim order, it has been mentioned that medical entrance tests of those States or institutions which have not been conducted till then would be invalidated.

Moreover, a final judgment of the apex court on the applicability of NEET-UG is still pending.

These are the two facts that the State Government seems to have overlooked, thus, leaving many medical aspirants in the State in the lurch. Had the State Government been so concerned about the proposed CET for admission to medical courses, what was it doing when the apex court sought it opinions on the proposal of MCI?

Thus, the hon’ble Health and Family Welfare Minister has any answer to this? The proposal of MCI has lots of merits as it would be a ‘one-size fit for all’ and the aggrieved parents/guardians, we are sure, would not raise any objection to this proposal.

What they are complaining is against the manner in which the medical entrance test of the State had been cancelled at the eleventh hour citing some Supreme Court rulings which are not even remotely related to the conduct of the State PMT.

If this is making an issue, then, surely, the hon’ble Health and Family Welfare Minister is more naïve than anyone.