Meghalaya CM demands 30 pc reservation in medical institute

Shillong, Jun 26: The Meghalaya government has decided to demand 30 per cent reservation of seats for the MBBS course at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Chief Minister Dr Donkupar Roy said.

The government's decision assumed significance in the wake of the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare's move to start the MBBS course with the first intake of 50 students, including 24 students from those Northeastern states that do not have a medical college of their own.

''I will take up the matter with Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss and request him to revert the Ministry's decision on the allocation of seats for MBBS course,'' Dr Roy told UNI here.

Opposing the Union Ministry's decision to fill the seats through entrance examinations, the Chief Minister said the government would persuade the Ministry to allow the state governments to select the students on merit basis, as presently done in other medical institutes.

Earlier, NEIGRIHMS Director Dr R N Salhan had said that the seats in the medical institute would be filled through competitive examinations to be conducted with the assistance of JIPMER, Pondicherry.

The Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People's and Khasi Student's Union also demanded 30 per cent reservation of seats for Meghalaya at NEIGRIHMS.

In a letter to Dr Ramadoss, the FKJGP sought revocation of the proposal to allot only nine seats to Meghalaya for MBBS courses at NEIGRIHMS.

''Manipur has been allotted more than 30 per cent of seats at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal, which clearly shows that the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry is applying a different yardstick in allotment of quota of seats to the various states. It is nothing but a clear instance of discrimination against Meghalaya,'' FKGJP said in the letter.

The KSU, which dashed off a letter to the Union Health Minister, said it should be the prerogative of the State Government to nominate or select candidates for its quota of reserved seats at NEIGRIHMS and that the move to reserve two seats for children of NEIGRIHMS faculty from the existing 20 seats for the State from the Central pool should be abandoned.

UNI