Bedi wants CBI to probe ‘irregular’ medical admissions in Puducherry

NEW DELHI: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi sought a CBI investigation into the admission of 778 medical students who were allotted seats by UT’s private colleges in violation of the Supreme Court-formed guidelines.

“I am forwarding all the materials available in my office so far which makes out a serious case of criminality committed by the Private Medical Colleges in the matter of illegal admissions to MBBS Course during the academic year 2016-17 with implicit omission / commission of the bureaucracy,” Bedi said in a September 17-dated letter to CBI director Alok Kumar Verma.

The 778 students were admitted in the last academic session but the Medical Council of India cancelled their admissions this month when investigations established irregularities on part of colleges in granting seats. This is the second time that Bedi has demanded a CBI probe into fraudulent medical admissions in Puducherry.

Earlier in June, she had sought a CBI probe into the alleged largescale corruption in the admission of students to postgraduate courses by private medical colleges in the Union Territory.

According to Bedi, it was because of the failure to hold private medical institutions and officers accountable for their lapses that the malaise continued in Post Graduate Medical Admissions in the 2017-18 session.“You will appreciate that your agency has already seized the irregularities/illegalities committed in PG Admissions, where 95 students have been discharged by Medical Council of India,” she said in her letter to the CBI director.

“Therefore, in the interest of Justice and also to send an effective message that Rule of Law and accountability prevails I request you to take an urgent action in this matter,” she concluded.

In the latest incident, Bedi had received complaints from parents alleging fraud and ordered a probe which found that of the 1,200 students who joined the bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery, or MBBS, in 2016, 778 were admitted overlooking the top court’s directives on the NEET. The state-run Indira Gandhi Medical College, which has 150 seats, is in the clean as it followed the counselling guidelines.

Of the 1,200 MBBS seats — bulk of them are with private colleges — available in the Union Terriotery, 283 are set aside for students of Puducherry, or state quota, while the remaining 767 are available to aspirants from across India. Last year, 280 state-quota seats were filled through Central Admission Committee (Centac). The three that remained vacant were added to the India pool, taking the number of seats to 770.

All 770 admissions under All India quota and eight under state quota found to have done overlooking the established guidelines.