Pondicherry: Opposition AIADMK seeks judicial probe into 'irregularities' in medical admissions

Puducherry: Opposition AIADMK on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into alleged irregularities in the admission of students in three private medical colleges in the Union Territory during 2017-18. Talking to reporters here the AIADMK legislature wing leader A Anbalagan said the Medical Council of India’s recent direction to quash the admission of 105 students of first-year MBBS course in the colleges here is a “shocking development.” [caption id=“attachment_4043625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The MCI had rescinded the admission as the names of the 105 students furnished by the colleges did not match with the CENTAC list, he said referring to the Council’s order. CENTAC is the statutory authority constituted by the territorial government for selecting candidates to professional courses in the Union Territory. The students’ future was now hanging in the balance, Anbalagan said and appealed to Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi to order a judicial probe into the alleged irregularities. “Puducherry has been witnessing such scams in admission to professional colleges every year,” he alleged. He sought to know why the Lieutenant Governor, who had been making a ‘hue and cry’ during admission of students to medical colleges was now keeping quiet even as the MCI had quashed the admission of students. A 7 December press release from the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare services said the MCI directed the colleges to “immediately discharge the students,” admitted in violation of Graduate Medical Education (GME) Regulations 1997.