more-in The Medical Council of India (MCI) has directed the territorial administration to discharge all MBBS students who were not admitted through the Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) in deemed universities and self-financing private medical colleges for the 2016-17 academic year. Acting on a complaint filed by the Puducherry UT All Centac Students Parents Association, the MCI, in its order dated September 7, said the monitoring sub-committee had found glaring deficiencies in admission of MBBS students during the last academic year by deemed universities and private medical colleges. The Council had directed the Secretary Health and Director of Health Sciences to ensure the discharge of all students who were not admitted through Centac and also those admitted after last date of admissions. The institutions have been directed to comply with the order within two weeks. ‘Illegal admissions’ The association had complained to the Lieutenant Governor and the MCI about gross irregularities in admission of medical students by the deemed universities. Around 770 students were illegally admitted by the institutes, the association had complained. The sub-committee, in its report, had noted that no combined merit list of the NEET qualified candidates was made by the deemed universities. “Prima facie this indicates that the direction of the Supreme Court to maintain transparency and fairness in the admission process had been totally and blatantly disregarded,” the order said. Prior to the counselling, the order said, the University Grants Commission had informed the deemed universities that they would be part of the common counselling in medical courses organised by the State government or through its agency based on the marks obtained in NEET. The institutions have not followed the procedure, the order said. The private colleges too have not prepared a combined merit list and gave admission only to a limited number of students through Centac. “They have also not demonstrated any evidence of fairness and transparency in the admission process because no combined merit list was prepared,” the order said. President of the association M. Narayanasamy said of the total 1,050 seats in four deemed universities and 3 self-financing private medical colleges, only 283 students were admitted through Centac. All the other seats were filled without common counselling and the management had a tacit understanding with the government, he said. A spokesperson of one of the deemed universities claimed that they had followed rules and regulations in the admission procedure. “We will reply to the discharge notice and explain about the procedure followed in the admission process,” he said.

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