Puducherry: Fudging of records reveals how the meritorious lost admissions

Puducherry: Three private medical colleges Puducherry admitted 186 students last year, who had no record of having applied to the college for MBBS admission.

CENTAC Chairperson pointed out that the parents' associations had submitted evidence proving that the three private medical colleges had provided admission to those students who hadn't even applied for it, thereby debarring other meritorious aspirant applicants to the college.

He said a comparison between the application list with the admission list submitted by Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, proved that out of 112 students admitted, 44 students had not even applied for admission to the college.

Similarly out of the 97 students admitted at Sri Venkateswara Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, 50 students had not applied at all, and out of the 95 students admitted at Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, 92 students had not applied at all states a recent report in TOI.

The MBBS admission disarray in both deemed and private medical colleges could have been avoided, if the state government and private institutions had complied to decisions taken at the Raj Nivas on 1^st September last year, said Governor, Kiran Bedi.

On conclusion of the MBBS admission process for the last academic year 2016-17 former judge, Madras High Court, Chitra Venkataraman, and Chairperson, Permanent Admission Committee in a 19^th October dated report addressed to the Chief Secretary, brought to light serious lapses in the admission process in three private medical colleges and asked the Puducherry government to take the necessary action.

Government delay with regards to this led to the MCI calling for a discharge of 770-odd MBBS students, who were admitted at private institutions, without compliance with rules and regulations.

The apex regulator in its 7^th September 2017 order gave a directive to the government and institutions to cancel admissions of students who were given the privilege without the Centralized Admission Committee(CENTAC) purview the order also asked for a submission of the compliance report within 2 weeks of the date of the dispatch of the order.

The meritorious was denied admission due to inability to match the fee structure of the college, with a pronouncement being made that he/she had not appeared for the counseling session.

"The parents informed that the colleges made this noting when the parents insisted on payment of fees as per the fee committee direction," the Justice said.

"Agony caused to over 770 medical students was completely avoidable had the minutes of the meeting recorded on September 1 last year held at Raj Nivas were implemented by all parties concerned. Permanent admission committee chairperson also pointed out the serious deficiencies later. None of the issues was addressed. The whole scenario would have been different had the issues were addressed effectively. Instead, the colleges had a free run as is evident from the scale of irregularities based on which the MCI has cancelled the admissions,' said Lieut. Governor Bedi to the TOI.

MCI Joint Secretary Rajendra Wahale, on the other hand, said students who were not allotted seats by the centralized admission committee (Centac) were granted admissions by institutions. He said the institutions had also admitted students illegally after the last date of admission (September 30 every year) fixed by the Supreme Court and the MCI. Wahale demanded for a compliance report within two weeks from the date of dispatch of the order.