Bihar State Government Advocates for Students in Dispute Over MBBS Seat Nominations with NMC

Patna: In a move siding with students, the state government has challenged the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) decision to invalidate nominations for 860 MBBS seats across government and private medical colleges. A letter has been dispatched to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the NMC, advocating for student enrollments made post-September 30 for the academic session 2023-24.

Request to Validate Late Enrollments

The letter, sent on Friday by Pratyaya Amrit, Additional Chief Secretary of the Health Department, urges authorities to permit MBBS enrollments made after September 30. Amrit clarifies that no irregularities have occurred in the delayed enrolment process, attributing the delays to various technical reasons.

No Irregularities, Claims Health Department

The state government asserted that students have been selected based on government fee structures for half of the seats in private medical colleges. Moreover, the letter emphasizes that a 33% reservation for women has been implemented in the admissions process. “All enrollments in the current academic session were conducted in accordance with NMC guidelines and through online procedures,” the Additional Chief Secretary wrote.

A Transparent Process

According to the letter, all student enrollments have been executed transparently across all medical colleges in the state. It’s worth noting that the NMC initially set the last date for nominations as September 30. Despite this, enrollments in MBBS courses in various states, including Bihar, continued past this deadline and were subsequently declared invalid.