From Our Correspondent
Agartala: The aspiring medical students will have to appear in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) from next academic session as the state government accepted the Centre’s plan.
Students who want to study medical courses- MBBS/BDS will have to take on the national level entrance test- NEET from 2013. The NEET will be conducted on May 5, 2013 in 85 cities across the country. In Tripura, the entrance test will be held at the state capital though the state government had demanded to arrange it in six Centres.
Talking to reporters at Civil Secretariat here on Wednesday, Health and Family Welfare Minister Tapan Chakraborty said that the pattern of the test would be objective type pen and paper test with 180 questions and question papers will be in six languages including English, Hindi and Bengali. On the criteria of the NEET, Chakraborty said the candidates will have to pass the XII standard examination with Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Zoology. There will be no bar on the obtained mark though the candidate will have to cross 17 years.
Chakraborty made it clear that while 15 medical seats will be reserved for Central Pool, 85 percent seat will be allotted as state quota. The cut-off mark for general will be 50 percent while 40 percent will be cut-off mark for ST/SC/OBC.
Chakraborty said, “Initially we are against the NEET but later, we decided to accept it after exploring all aspects. In fact, the NEET is not against the domicile students”. With the adoption of the NEET, there is no merit of conducting separate joint entrance test by the Tripura Joint Entrance Board (TJEB) at least for allocating medical seats.
Sources said, the state will not suffer after the decision of embracing NEET. In twin medical colleges of Tripura- AGMC and TMC, 15 percent seats are meant for Central Pool while the state uses to retain 85 percent seat leaving 10 percent seats to those NE states who don’t have medical college.