Prove charges or apologise, CM tells Kiran Bedi

Narayanasamy tables statement on Centac admission row in Assembly; lists out steps taken after merit list was put online

June 15, 2017 12:12 am | Updated 08:27 am IST - PUDUCHERRY

V. Narayanasamy

V. Narayanasamy

A defiant Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy has again challenged Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi to prove her charge against his government that they had surrendered 71 seats to private medical colleges in the admissions to PG medical courses.

Tabling a five-page statement on the Centac admission controversy in the Assembly on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said she should “either prove the charges or publicly apologise for misguiding people and students.”

Listing out the steps taken by the government after the merit list was hosted on the website of Centac on April 26, unlike other States, the Puducherry government had ensured 50% of PG seats in clinical and non-clinical seats available in private colleges and deemed universities.

Out of the 613 candidates qualified for NEET PG from here, only 267 candidates applied for PG medical courses (degree and diploma) against 162 MD/MS seats under State quota. After completion of two rounds of counselling, 91 seats under government quota and 118 seats under management quota were filled. Besides, 13 seats under government quota for PG diploma course were filled. At the end of counselling, 71 seats under government quota were vacant, the statement said.

As the two rounds of counselling were over, the Centre reduced the percentile cut off for postgraduate admission. Subsequently, 143 students were selected during the counselling held on May 29 and 30 for students. Out of this, 10 students belonged to the Union Territory, the statement said.

As per Centre’s directions, the 10 students should be accommodated in the all-India quota and admitted before May 31. So, the total number of students admitted under government quota went up to 101 and another 13 for postgraduate diploma courses.

The fee committee adopted the structure followed by Tamil Nadu and it was communicated to the colleges on May 16. Two private colleges filed cases in the Madras High Court and obtained an interim order till June 2, the statement said.

The case was again posted for June 13. Meanwhile, the government had served show cause notices to two colleges and it was communicated to Medical Council of India (MCI) for taking appropriate action.

‘Against MCI guidelines’

When the government was taking steps to get students admitted, Lt. Governor visited Centac and insisted on another round of counselling on May 31 which was against the MCI guidelines and the directions of the Supreme Court.

Now, because of her intervention, 22 students based on her oral assurance of getting admitted in deemed universities were literally on streets. The universities had refused to accept the fee structure of ₹5.5 lakh fixed for them by the committee, the Chief Minister said in the statement.

As he wound up reading the statement, legislators K. Lakshminarayanan (Congress), A. Anbalagan (AIADMK) and N.S.J. Jayabal (AINRC) sought a clarification on the stand of the government on the fee structure to be followed by the universities.

The Chief Minister said the government wanted the universities to follow the same structure prescribed by committee.

The fee structure for private colleges and universities should be the same and the government stand had been made known to the Madras High Court, he added.

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