Andaman requests Tamil Nadu, Bengal for reserving MBBS seats

Port Blair, June 24 (UNI) Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bhopinder Singh has requested the Governments of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry to reserve some seats in MBBS course in their state and Union Territory(UT) institutions for the students of this UT with effect from the current session (2008-09).

In separate letters to the Chief Ministers of these States, the Lt. Governor said due to the remoteness of these Islands, the students did not have an easy access to the facilities which otherwise were easily available to the people of mainland.

Students intending to pursue professional courses had to face difficulties due to non-existence of Institutes offering such courses in these Islands and they were dependent on Institutions in mainland, the Lt.Governor said in his letter.

Though, the Centre has reserved some seats in the technical Institutes of various States but this caters only to a portion of demand of the aspiring students, he added.

He further said that the recent decision of the HRD Ministry to finalise selection to engineering seats in NITs based on the All India merit list of AIEEE in place of erstwhile State-wise merit list was only going to accentuate the situation for the bright students of these Islands.

Though they proved themselves in academics at par with the students of mainland, they were found disadvantaged while competing in national level entrance examinations for professional courses due to lack of coaching and other infrastructura1 facilities here, he added.

UNI SKR RH ADG KLC1710