By Our Correspondent
AGARTALA: The impasse over admission in 24 ST reserved medical seats in Agartala Govt Medical College (AGMC) continues with Tripura government failing to receive fresh directive from the Centre relaxing the cut-off marks.
Considering the sensitivity of the issue, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had called up Union Health Minister Gulam Navi Azad on Tuesday and wanted to know whether Centre will give any relaxation on the cut-off marks for admission in MBBS course meant for ST students in Tripura.
“In reply, the Union Minister had told the Chief Minister that he would get back to him later but did not yet”, said Tripura’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Tapan Chakraborty here Wednesday.
While talking to reporters at Civil Secretariat, Chakraborty said that the matter was discussed threadbare in the yesterday’s cabinet meeting but no headway was achieved. “We can’t fill up the vacant MBBS seats ignoring the cut-off marks prescribed by the MCI”, Chakraborty said.
Of the total 27 ST reserved MBBS seats in the AGMC, only three students were found eligible for admission as per the MCI approved cut-off mark- 40 percent and 24 seats could not be allocated at time of counselling.
Expressing concern over the deadlock, Opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath had already urged the Centre to offer relaxation in the cut-off marks considering the ground reality.
The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), another opposition party has also been persuading the matter with the Centre for admission in 24 ST reserved seats without taking into consideration of the cut-off marks. Besides, Joint Action Committee (JAC), a common platform of ST students has been staging sit-in-demonstration seeking relaxation in the cut-off mark to fill up the vacant seats.
However, the Centre is yet to respond on the crucial issue though the new academic session in the AGMC has already got underway.