DME creates panel to deal with ‘false’ nativity claims

DME creates panel to deal with ‘false’ nativity claims

It will look into complaints made by medical aspirants

20/11/2020

Special CorrespondentCHENNAI

The Directorate of Medical Education (DME) has created a five-member expert committee to look into complaints of “false nativity claims” made by aspirants to medical seats in the State.

The committee comprises Deputy Directors of Medical Education M. Selvaraj and G. Vimala Devi; P. Parasakthi, Director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Madras Medical College; K. Rajasekar, professor of Ophthalmology; P. Thirunavukkarasu, head, Physical Medicine; and V. Avudaiappan, Registrar, Tamil Nadu Homoeopathy Council.

Any disputes regarding nativity will be referred to the committee for scrutiny and the committee will give a decision that will be adopted as per the norms listed on the prospectus, said R. Narayana Babu, Director of Medical Education.

The DME said the committee had been constituted on Wednesday, the first day of counselling for medical and dental seats under the State quota.

Soon after the merit list for the State seats was released by the DME, complaints arose that Mohanaprabha Ravichandran, who had been ranked second, featured on the medical merit list in Kerala State.

Concerns were raised that she had claimed nativity in that State as well as in Tamil Nadu.

Another list

On Wednesday, as counselling began for seats reserved for government school students, another list of medical applicants emerged — this time a list of 34 candidates who had applied to colleges in Telangana as well as in Tamil Nadu.

Ms. Mohanaprabha’s father Ravichandran said his daughter had applied for self-financing and private medical colleges in Kerala under a scheme that permits other State candidates to apply. “We are natives of Namakkal and we have not forged nativity for applications in Kerala. We applied under the non-Keralite II scheme in Kerala, in which those who are not natives of the State can apply for seats in private and self-financed medical colleges, and would be considered if seats are not filled through counselling there,” Mr. Ravichandran told The Hindu.

Since his daughter had scored good marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), she had appeared for the all-India counselling. Ms. Mohanaprabha had secured All India Rank 62 and is placed second on the State merit list. In the merit list in Kerala, she is ranked fifth among the top 10 candidates. She has since been admitted to JIPMER.

Ever since NEET became the qualifying criteria for medical seats, certain kinds of malpractices have crept in. Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said the DME had put in place “checks and balances”, and candidates were expected to give a signed affidavit that all information provided by them was genuine. Malpractice would be attributed only if a student had claimed nativity in two different States as part of their MBBS application, he said.

(With inputs from Staff Reporter in Salem)