AIIMS again in caste discrimination row

New Delhi, Jan 31: Alleging rampant discrimination against reserved category students in AIIMS, the Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunities today claimed that the institute management had rigged the results of the final year MBBS retest and had ''deliberately failed'' a dalit candidate.

The members of the Forum last night staged a sit-in outside the residence of Institute Director P Venugopal, demanding his resignation over the issue.

The Forum alleged that final year MBBS student Ajay K Kumar was being ''targeted'' as he had been involved in the pro-reservation campaign in the institute.

''Mr Kumar was involved in exposing the discrimination against the SC/ST students in the institute. Therefore he has been failed.

The anti-reservation lobby is responsible for that,'' Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunities Dr R K Prasad said.

He claimed that independent observers were not appointed to conduct the retest.

However, the AIIMS Management dismissed the charges, saying the examination was conducted in a ''free and fair'' manner.

''Mr Kumar's score in the examination is much below the pass percentage. His academic record over the past five years will prove that his performance is not satisfactory,'' AIIMS spokesperson Dr Shakti Gupta said.

He said the examination was conducted as per the guidelines of the Institute Governing Body under the supervision of an external and independent observer, Dr Basudeb Ghosh, Director Guru Nanak Eye Centre.

In his remarks Dr Ghosh said the re-examination was structured and objective and it was conducted in a free and fair manner.

''I served as an observer for MBBS the final re-examination...

the candidates were given sufficient time to ive their response during the clinical evaluation as well as viva,'' he added.

On December 29, the re-examination for the final semester of MBBS was held for seven students. Only six students appeared for the retest.

Of the six students, including Mr Kumar, only one student passed the examination.

UNI