The medical education dreams and hopes of hundreds of students who passed out successfully in the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) have been shattered by the indifferent and dubious approach of the board of directors of the Employees State Insurance Corporation-owned medical colleges in the country, allege parents of students who face uncertainty about their future.
“This has tarnished the image of the Ministries of Health, Human Resources in general and that of the Centre in particular,” according to a candidate whose admission to the first year MBBS is hanging in the balance.
There are nine ESI-run medical colleges in India where 20 per cent of the total seats are reserved exclusively for the children of subscribers of the State promoted organisation. The number of seats allocated for MBBS course is 317 and for BDS is 22. “This reservation is inclusive of the candidates coming under Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBC and EWS,” said the father of a girl student who scored more grades in the NEET than what was prescribed by the Board for being considered for admission to the MBBS/BDS courses.
But the aspirations of this candidate and hundreds of others like her suffered a setback in June this year when a single bench judge of the Madras High Court issued an order staying the admission of students under the ESI quota against a petition filed by an open quota student who questioned the legality of the admission process. Her contention was that though she had scored more marks in the NEET, she was being denied admission to facilitate the admission of the ESI quota students.
The ESI posted the court order on its website on June 28 and the first list of selected candidates was published on July 1. The parents who contacted the ESI board about the fate of their children were told that an appeal was being filed seeking the cancellation of the stay order. Though the second and final allotment list was published on July 12, it too did not carry the names of the ESI quota students. What made matters worse was that these students, who were confident of making it to the medical colleges did not apply for any other colleges or courses. “Though we were told by the ESI Board that it would approach the Madras High Court nothing happened and this forced us to file a complaint with the Supreme Court. The apex court asked us to approach the Madras High Court pleading for a hearing by a Division Bench,” said the father of another applicant.
The Division Bench of the MHC on July 18 stayed the order by the single bench and asked the ESI management to hasten up the admission procedure as per hitherto followed norms. Though the court order was received by the ESI headquarters on July 23, the director general of the body rejected the order stating that there was no clarity. The students and the parents again approached the High Court seeking the clarification asked by the DG, they were told by the additional solicitor general that whatever clarification had been asked by the DG was there in the court order and all that the latter had to do is to admit the students.
Despite these developments, the ESI Board has refused to comply with the Court Order which has necessitated the parents and the students deciding to file a contempt of court in the Supreme Court against the ESI Board.
“There is an apprehension among us that the ESI Board may be hand in glove with the private management colleges to force some of the students from the reserved quota seek admission paying hefty fees. By delaying the admission process of the reserved quota students, the ESI management may be indirectly helping the self finance medical colleges,” said P Ramadas, an aggrieved father of a student who has been qualified but denied admission for reasons best known to the management. But K Suresh Babu, leader of the INTUC who was a board member of the ESIC till last year has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the students. “I have been given as assurance by the ESI management that the qualified students would be granted admission and there is no need for them to be upset,” he told The Pioneer on Monday.