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With Entrance Exam Confusion And Ranks For Sale, MBBS Aspirants In Kolkata Stuck In Limbo
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By Aishik Purkait and Shreya Venkatraman:
After the Supreme Court judgement, which cleared the deck for holding the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS in two phases for the academic year 2016-17, with NEET 1 already been held on May 1 and NEET 2 for students who did not appear for the first phase of the exam, it was made clear that all other admission tests, held and scheduled, stands scrapped. This made the NEET compulsory for those seeking MBBS admission as it was created to have a common level playing field. This led to protests across various states with people coming out to the streets to voice their opposition. In West Bengal, the scene was not very different.
Seeing the growing protests, the courts allowed the state to hold their own state exams which were earlier called off. The West Bengal State (WBJEE) exams were scheduled to be conducted in the month of July.
However, between the months of June and July, between the first and second NEET exam scheduled to take place in the month of July, all the seats were sold according to the rank that a student wanted. On Facebook, people proudly proclaimed how they had bought seats and went on to tell people that they should not worry and will get a rank of their choice if they pay an amount which went up to an amount as high as INR 50-60 lakhs and beyond.
About 86,000 students registered for the exam but only 54,000 students appeared for the exams. Questions were also raised on the fact that students who scored marks as high as 173 or 217 were not given a rank even though the qualifying marks for the Unreserved category (UR) was 215 out of 250.
Unlike the previous year , this year around 12,000 students qualified while last year around 5,000 people qualified. The obvious uptick has raised plenty of questions.
Accusations were raised against one of the residential coaching institutions, Al Ameen Mission, Panchur, Bengal. It was attacked with allegations that most of its students attained a rank in the first 1500 of the merit list as mentioned in a tweet by Dr. Amit Gupta, an MBBS doctor from TN Medical college, Mumbai, and an RTI activist.
266 out of the first 1500 ranks were allotted to students from this particular institution adding to the absurdity of roll numbers being allotted to these students one after the other and on being given the same center. This alleged involvement was nothing but an extension of the online trading of seats to students.
Questions were also raised on the two private medical colleges in Bengal.
Two of West Bengal’s private medical colleges, KPC Medical College and Hospitals and IQ city have been accused of being involved in this case. “Cake nahi khaya pura bakery kha liya ” (“You didn’t just eat the cake, you ate the entire bakery”) was the observation of the Calcutta High Court on their respective admission processes.
KPC Medical college in its admission notice mentioned that the seats will be allotted on first-come-first-serve basis to the first 77 applicants, which leaves open the sanctity of the profession itself. It released its ranks before all the applications were even filed and hence the students had no choice but to start a statewide protest against the college. In response, the management of the college said that the previous list would be removed and instead a new list will be published.
IQ city on the other hand published the roll numbers and the name of the applicants without the ranks, making their admission process vague.
“I’m very upset about whatever happened and this is unfair as I have been preparing for the past two years. I was expecting at least a seat in dental colleges,” said Tannavi Singh, one of the aspiring medical students in Kolkata. Tannavi’s plight is very similar to the thousands of students who worked hard to study for the one thing that mattered the most to them: getting a good rank to get into a good medical college.
Another student, who refused to be named said, “After the publication of WBJEE results, we have been pushed to a condition of deep frustration and depression. I scored 167 and got 2532 rank instead of getting a rank between 500-700 which indicates the corruption and nepotism in the entire process. The attitude of the WBJEE board of not publishing total merit list along with the score on an open platform adds fuel to the suspicion.”
These accounts from the aspirants raises questions regarding the profession itself while answers and the road ahead remains unclear.
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Dr K Chaudhry
MBBS SEATS SOLD OUT EVERY YEAR
During past week I had a Closer Glance at IP University MBBS Admissions. Format of Counselling matches nowhere the standard format followed everywhere else. No reference to what is due after current round of Dubious Counselling. IP University Call Center 011-25302170 Admission helpline 25302167 VC 25302104, 25302105 PVC 25302108 Registrar 25302113, 25302114 Admission 25302152, 25302154 NO REPLY ALWAYS. Delhi Government Secretary Higher Education number 23930516 and Education Minister number 23392103 talk in congruent tone – Telephone se kuchh nahin hoga. IP University chale jaaeeye. Education Minister Mobile 9999424424 switched off. Education Minister available on Facebook chat against Advance AAP Donation of at least Rs10,000 – Screenshot at http://ukmall.net/undigested/nbe. All admission notices linked INCONSISTENTLY under hidden links on IPU Website. I have absolutely no doubt that most of IP University MBBS seats shall be eventually sold out.
That glaring corruption in IP University induced me to look into MBBS Admissions elsewhere. MBBS Admissions every year have been guided by Supreme Court. Students and Parents are never sure of College Count and Seat Count. Colleges are barred by Medical Council of India and then reinstated by Courts. College and Seat count shifts on daily basis.
PERHAPS Supreme Court once ordered Medical Colleges to to display list of admitted students on Medical College Websites. Most Medical Colleges in India have Student List 2014 on their Website. Some colleges have Student List 2015 and Student List 2016. Hardly any Medical College has Student List 2017. Before classes begin, it should be mandatory for Every Medical College to post a Student List on Website with All India NEET Rank of every student admitted. Every student admitted thereafter should be added in Website within a week. Since most Medical Colleges stopped posting Student List and stopped even updating website after year 2014, perhaps Seats falling vacant after Counselling were sold in bulk. Protecting the Student Status, all MBBS Admissions made after year 2014 should be probed by CBI.
The content of this Article may please be construed as Public Interest Litigation Petition by Supreme Court of India and IP MBBS Admission Counselling scrapped in Toto. Lt Governor Delhi is requested to tear break the Ministers-IPU nexus in the interest of Citizens of National Capital.
Dr K Chaudhry
01142316457, 9810570740
FIRST Author of Jaypee Brothers