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Bengal

Bengal docs urge PM to allow filling up of state quota seats through own exam

Kolkata: As many as 10 doctors from Bengal have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to issue instructions to the Union Health Ministry allowing Bengal and various other state governments to fill up 85 state quota seats through their own medical entrance examination.

According to the doctors, after clearing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the candidates are admitted in 85 percent quota seats in all states, which often causes discrimination between the medical aspirants.

The doctors pointed out that such a practice is against the basic principles of Indian Constitution. They therefore urged the Prime Minister so that the responsibilities of admitting medical students in 85 state quota seats can be attributed to the respective states.

Earlier, various state governments including Bengal used to conduct their own medical entrance examination before the introduction of NEET in 2013.

"State quota is unconstitutional for a single medical entrance examination conducted throughout the country. Due to state quota seats, there is obvious discrimination in undergraduate medical admission in the country. In some states, students fail to secure admission after obtaining 520 marks out of 720 in the unreserved category, whereas the candidates from some other states get an admission securing only 330 while availing the state quota seats in their respective states. The cut-off marks vary from one state to another in a nationwide exam, which is against our Constitution," said Dr AK Maity, director of Dr Maity Educational & Medical Research Institute in the city and one of the doctors who wrote the letter.

The cut-off marks vary between states, depending on the number of medical seats in their jurisdiction. The medical aspirants belonging to the states which have lesser number of medical seats are often deprived.

"Due to state quota seats, some candidates are securing admission in MBBS with low marks while some others from different states fail to secure admission with higher

marks. This is a clear violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution," Dr Maity pointed out.

During 1975-76, there was district-quota in medical admission in Bengal.

Afterwards, the quota was abolished following the direction of the Supreme Court, giving its verdict that the district-quota is unconstitutional for a single entrance within the state.

NEET was first implemented in 2013, replacing the All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Test and other individual medical exams conducted by various states.

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