Teen loses govt medical seat as E-seva official gives fake docu

THE STUDENT HAD A NARROW WINDOW TO SUBMIT HER DOMICILE CERTIFICATE AND ACCEPTED WHEN A GOVT EMPLOYEE OFFERED TO EXPEDITE THE PROCESS

MUMBAI :An 18-year-old medical aspirant lost her seat at the government-run JJ Hospital’s Grant Medical College because an E-seva Kendra employee gave her a fake domicile certificate. The student has now approached the Bombay high court, asking that the seat be given back to her, as she cannot afford ti study at a private medical college.

The girl’s advocate, Neha Bhise, told the court that her client was a meritorious student and had been allotted a seat in Grant Medical College under the national merit list. She got provisional admission for the seat, and was asked to submit relevant documents to confirm the admission. She did not have a domicile certificate,and applied for it at the E-seva Kendra — a state portal for all government documents. As the student had a narrow window to submit the documents, she accepted when a state government employee got in touch with her and offered to expedite the certificate, in exchange for a consideration, Bhise said.

However, the employee had given the student a fake certificate, and this came to light when the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) —the administrative and regulatory authority for admission to medical colleges in the state — examined them.

CONTINUED ON P 8 MUMBAI: The state government may not be able to raise the financial compensation that it promised to cotton farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada who had lost more than half their standing crop to a pink bollworm attack eight months ago.

This is not only because fewer farmers applied for the compensation, but also because the seed companies — which were expected to contribute ₹16,000 per hectare as compensation to the 40 lakh affected farmers — said they were not liable to pay as much as many of the farmers had