Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and Leader of Opposition MK Stalin has written to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, urging him to re-conduct MBBS counseling under horizontal reservation, since a delayed Government Order (GO)clarifying that the state will bear the cost of fees for government school students in private colleges, has made many deserving students lose their seats.
The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday, a day after the three-day counseling for MBBS seats under 7.5% quota, announced that the state will pay the college and hostel fees of the students by creating revolving funds. The announcement by the government disappointed many MBBS aspirants of state-run schools since they gave up their seats in private medical and dental colleges as they could not pay Rs 25,000 as an advance sum and afford the fees.
In a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Stalin said, “It is saddening to hear that the students who received seats under 7.5% reservations denied to take up the seats in private medical colleges since they were unable to pay for the seats.”
Many government school students including a student with disabilities, Subathra, gave up her seat and enrolled under the waiting list of government colleges due to the delayed announcement, he said.
“The delayed announcement on the formation of rolling funds and the negligence of the government in informing the students appearing for the counseling has led to this difficult situation. If the government had announced or informed this to students and parents much prior to the date of counseling, the dreams of many students to become a doctor would have come true,” he said.
The DMK president said that the government should find a solution for this. He also said, “I urge the government to conduct medical counseling again so that students who couldn’t take up medical seats due to the problems regarding the payment of fees will get the apt solution. The government should take steps on these lines without any further delay.”