In a memorandum submitted to the Union health and family welfare minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, in New Delhi on Friday, KSU general secretary Hamlet Dohling, FKJGP president Emlang Lyttan and KHNAM president Paul Lyngdoh, demanded the removal of the Centre of Excellence tag from the relevant act of NEIGRIHMS.
They said the institute was yet to merit such a status.
They criticised the recent results of the entrance examinations where of the 18 seats reserved under the Northeast open category, 15 went to students of Manipur and three to Assam.
“The fact that the topper of Meghalaya’s SSLC examinations, Jesse James Rani, was placed in the 141st position, added salt to our injury, and we believe that this was largely because of manipulation resorted by the authorities,” the memorandum said.
It said Manipur and Assam have medical institutes of their own and hence, seats under the open quota should be redistributed among states, which did not have this advantage.
They demanded that the entrance examinations should be conducted by different agencies to ensure fair play. “The state share formula should give weightage to Meghalaya for the under-graduate and post-graduate levels and the selection should be a prerogative of the state government,” the memorandum added.
They suggested that on the lines of the principle adopted in Manipur and Puducherry, the distribution of the seats in the institute might be reviewed. Of a total of 50 MBBS seats, the allocation should be four for Arunachal Pradesh, 18 for Meghalaya, three for Mizoram, eight for Nagaland, nine open to all northeastern states and eight for candidates from all over India.
Moreover, they stated that the recruitment policy of the institute should increase the scope of entry of indigenous people. Certain administrative posts should be kept aside for Meghalaya candidates to ensure that the interests of the people were protected.
Dohling said Azad’s response was positive and that he felt Meghalaya had every right to obtain more seats in the institute. He added that Azad would convene a meeting to discuss the demands and also visit Shillong in October or November for an in-depth discussion.
“The outcome of the discussion with Azad was fruitful, and we are very positive that the demands will be fulfilled. However, if they are not fulfilled, we will decide on our next course of action,” Dohling said.
He said the KSU and FKJGP would be calling on Union home minister P. Chidambaram to discuss the Indo-Bangla boundary dispute.