Bihar: 26 ST MBBS seats still lying vacant

Ranchi: The 26 MBBS seats reserved for scheduled tribes for the new academic session beginning this year have not been filled. The Medical Education & Family Welfare Department and the Department of Health & Family Welfare have failed to fulfill their responsibility.

Despite having sat for the exam through Jharkhand Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (JCECE), students have failed to qualify for the 26 seats. The seats are distributed between Pataliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) Dhanbad, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) Ranchi, and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College(MGMMC) Jamshedpur.

The state had not opted for the optional National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET).

Of the 360 seats available to the state, 85 % are domicile based. Of the 305 remaining, 150 are reserved for the SC, ST and OBC MBBS aspirants.

In the face of poor performance, the state’s health department has written to the Medical Council of India, asking for the qualifying percentage for schedule castes to be lowered, said Sudhir Kumar Ranjan, Deputy Secretary, State Health Department.

According to him the state has sent a notification in this regard to the MCI last week. Prior to this, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, had also written to the Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi seeking MCI intervention. A Medical Council of India response is now awaited on the matter said Ranjan.

A minimum of 40% as qualifying percentage is required, as per Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines by SC/ ST candidates to get admission in a medical college of the state.

The persisting problems of non-qualification of ST and SC students, forced the state government to propose a percentile gradation system, to the MCI, to allow admission of those students who obtain the highest percentage in the entrance exam.