No Place to Accommodate: Fathima Institute students face an uncertain future

Vijayawada: The state government’s inability to accommodate 100 medical students of Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences(FIMS),Kadappa into other medical colleges due to implementation of NEET may result in the students loosing their seats altogether. All these students have secured admissions through EAMCET.

A senior official from the health department, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We tried our best to accommodate them in other medical colleges in the State. But the problem is they secured admissions through EAMCET, where as the eligibility criteria is NEET. Earlier students who had taken admissions in management quota or NRI quota had the option of being accommodated in those categories only but even that possibility has been shot down due to the implementation of NEET.”

However, the Fathima students have been assured by the Minister for Health and Medical Education, Kamineni Srinivas that the department will do its best to have them accommodated in other institutions.

“We would do justice to all the students. We have discussed the issue with the Chief Minister and also with the Medical Council of India (MCI) whether to permit the students in the same college or make them part of other colleges,” added Srinivas.

These students were admitted for the academic session of 2015-16 in September, through the third and final counselling, since till the second counselling the college had yet to get session commencement permission from the MCI and the High Court.

The third counselling saw the college listed in the chart of counselling after the interim orders of the Hyderabad High Court.

The college management which continued with the counselling admitted the students under category A & B along with the NRI quota.

Since the college did not have the MCI clearance, the said student admissions were later cancelled. The admission scam at FIMS surfaced after the High Court dismissal of the case on April 23, 2016.

The Supreme Court in December also cancelled the case filed by the students stating that the admissions were not taken up as per the guidelines.“The issue is still going on and we are discussing with the officials of MCI and Health department. To accommodate the students in other colleges, we need 100 more seats in all the colleges across the State. As the Centre made NEET mandatory as the basic eligibility test, it might take a little longer time to convince the MCI even as the students have qualified the EAMCET,” said N Subbarao, DME.

A student, who got into FIMS after his second attempt at EAMCET, said that the college management was wholly responsible for the ongoing chaos. “At the time of counselling, the NTR Health University had approved our admissions and now it is the same university that has cancelled our admissions and dragged us to the roads. Even after the High Court orders, the college management denied to refund our fees. In the name of anti-ragging, the management took our signatures on blank papers and doctored them,”s revealed th 19-year-old to the TNIE. Another , native of Nellore, said that his family sold their agricultural land to pay for his fees.

Meanwhile, students and parents had intimated Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu in December, and Naidu in turn assured students admission to other colleges. He also asked the concerned department officials to speed up the process.

The Registrar of FIMS, didn’t respond to calls. The Vice Chancellor of NTR Health University who is negotiating with college managements and MCI officials refused to comment on the issue too.