Bengali-medium students given raw deal, says Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her immense dissatisfaction over the way Bengali-medium students have been deprived of in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Chairing a meeting at Nabanna on Tuesday, she said: "I am offended as our students have not got a better opportunity. I heard there were issues with the question paper. The English and Bengali question papers were different."

Criticising the Centre for the same, the Chief Minister also added: "They are not giving priority to the regions. Students from the states are getting deprived. The matter has to be taken up with the MCI and we plan to take it up with the Centre as well."

It may be mentioned here that the Chief Minister had written to Union Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar drawing his attention to the question paper debacle that occurred mainly in the Bengali translation. Despite her intimation, no steps have been taken in this regard so far.

As a result of the incident, students from the state who had opted for Bengali as the medium of language performed miserably in the NEET the result of which was published on Monday. A student has already moved Calcutta High Court seeking its intervention regarding the question paper. The Calcutta High Court sought clarification from the Centre and also the CBSE on how the Bengali translation of the question paper was full of so many errors and also asked the Centre to reserve a seat for the petitioner who filed a writ petition with the court.

The Chief Minister asked senior health officials to take up the NEET issue with the Centre so that the Bengali-medium students would not be deprived to study MBBS. While giving a detailed account of what the state government has done in the health sector, Banerjee said seats have been increased from 1,300 to 2,900 after the present government came to power. Mother and child hubs have also been set up. There is, however, an urgent need to increase the number of doctors.

"There is a requirement of more doctors and sisters in the hospitals and we want that the number of doctors to increase. Many of the doctors go out creating a dearth in the state. There is a need of neuro-surgeons as well," the Chief Minister maintained.

"The dearth can only be addressed if the number of doctors is produced in the state. The issue was never looked into before. We have overcome the issue to a great extent and it will take some time to address the deficit. Doctors are the assets and they have to cater to huge number of patients in hospitals like SSKM Hospital, Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, NRS Medical College and Hospital, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where more than 2 lakh patients turn up in Out Patient Department (OPD) each in a month, she said.