Hundreds of MBBS students of 2015-16 of the Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital here are on a hunger strike in front of the gate of the MCH since Saturday morning.
The students of 2015-16 staged protest, following reports of Supreme Court rejecting to admit their review petition on allowing them to continue their MBBS courses. The students threatened to launch mass hunger strike if justice is not given to them.
According to sources, the future of at least 100 students, who had enrolled in MBBS courses in Hi-Tech MCH for the academic year 2015-16 in a controversial manner, is hanging in balance after the Supreme Court accepting Medical Council of India’s (MCI) claim on the admission of 2015-16 batch in Hi-tech, ruled it as invalid. Significantly, due to want of some formalities, the MCI had disallowed admission into the MBBS courses in the Hi-Tech MCH.
The High-Tech MCH had challenged the decision in the Orissa High Court and had got a favorable order and on that basis, had admitted the 100 students. The admission of the students, however, was not done through the Joint Entrance Examination; rather through an independent examination, since the JEE admission formalities were over by then.
The admission of the students was neither accepted by the MCI nor by the Government of Odisha. The MCI had challenged the admission of Hi-Tech in the Supreme Court. The SC had finally given its verdict in favor of MCI’s claim, after which the future of these students is in dark. However, the college authorities and the guardians of the victim students had last hope in the form of a review petition in the SC but the court recently rejected to admit a review petition.
“We are on hunger strike since Saturday as our future is in dark. The Principal is now telling us that we are not students of the college. We should be allowed to pursue our studies,” said a victim student of Hi-Tech MCH here.