Dimapur, July 26 (MExN): In yet another case of recruiting agency falling prey to nepotism and corruption, a top ranking candidate of the recently held Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) was refused merit-earned slot in the MBBS and his place given to two lowly-ranked candidates, one of whom is the son of a Minister in the Nagaland Government, it was complained.
In the recent Nagaland Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) conducted by the Department of Higher & Technical Education, 33 seats was allotted under central Pool MBBS seats, where the selection of the students was purportedly done on merit basis but the word merit evidently remained a mere word to the selection board when better ranked students were deprived of their seats.
Merit-successful JEE candidate Niuto S. Chishi was dropped while 464th and 627th ranking candidates were selected, one of them reported to be a son of a minister in the ruling DAN Government. According to a copy of the JEE 2006 merit list Niuto S Chishi is Ranked 27 however, his name finds no mention in the advertisement-results for MBBS which was declared on June 28 in the local dailies. Chishi’s name, actually meriting in the MBBS slot however is placed in the list for BVSc and Animal Husbandry.
When contacted, an H&TE official maintained that “We wanted the results to be very transparent and worked in transparency. The selection was done on merit basis but as per the directive of the higher authority.” Curiously, talking of “higher authority” the 464th ranking candidate is reportedly the son of the Minister who is also the JEE Selection Board chairman.
Further Higher & Technical Education officials informed that the concern minister had said that he would approach the Centre for more seats to be allocated. He is informed to have said later that two additional seats have been added. However whether or not those two seats were selected randomly or as per the merit basis remains a mystery.
Also sources said that since the seats allotted are 33 then one candidate ranking 33rd in the merit list identified as one, Lingshau James P Phom, might have been “demoted’ to other courses instead of the deserving MBBS. Statistics of the mentioned candidates show that Niuto S Chishi, Rank 27 in the merit list has total marks of 126.50 while the 464 ranked candidate has total marks 59.50 and the 627th ranked candidate has marks 50.5.
The Merit list seats for MBBS are 33 including 5 seats for Backward Tribes (BT). Chishi was placed Rank 27 according to the Department’s merit list. Sources later informed that both the 464th and 627th ranked candidates were given merit seats (MBBS) but their names were not declared in the merit results due to directions from “higher authority”. Also it may be noted that only 31 successful candidates were declared in the MBBS seats instead of the actual 33. The Central pool Quota for Nagaland is:
Guwahati Medical College (2 seats), Silchar Medical College Assam (1 seat), JIPMER Pondicherry (2 seats), Lady Hardinge Medical College New Delhi (1 seat), Rajendra Medical College Jharkhand (2 seats), SK Medical College Bihar (1 seat), AN Magadh Medical College Bihar (1 seat), BS Medical College West Bengal (1 seat), SP Medical College Rajasthan (1 seat), GSVM Medical College Uttar Pradesh (1 seat), LLRM Medical College Uttar Pradesh (1 seat), Gandhi Medical College Madhya Pradesh ( 1 seat), GR Medical College Madhya Pradesh (3 seats), Indira Gandhi Government Medical College Maharashtra ( 1 seat), JLN Medical College Bihar (1 seat), St John Medical College Karnataka (1 seat), VMCC Safdarjang Hospital Delhi ( 1 seat) and RIIMS, Manipur (11 seats).
Concern officials from the Department of Higher & Technical education were not available for comment at the time of filing this news report.
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