AGARTALA, Aug 26 � The Centre has rejected Tripura Government�s plea for reduction in the cut-off marks for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) category students for admission to MBBS course at Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC), official sources said today.
Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and State Health Minister Tapan Chakraborty wrote to Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to reduce the cut-off marks from 40 per cent for SC and ST students, the sources said.
In reply to the Chief Minister�s letter, Azad on August 8 said, �the issue involved two aspects � teaching and treatment and the professionals are to deal with living human beings, so, diluting qualifying criteria is neither feasible nor desirable,� they said.
As many as 29 seats in reserved categories, including 25 seats for ST, were left vacant in the AGMC this year because of non availability of qualified students.
Early this month, the Agartala bench of Gauhati High Court rejected the plea for reduction of cut-off marks prescribed by the MCI for reserved categories. � PTI