Students awaiting the start of counselling for the Institute of National Importance-Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) 2022 were disappointed when the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi cancelled it. A notification in this regard was issued by the institute on September 19. The students filed a plea in the Supreme Court opposing the notice on September 26, Monday.
Why did AIIMS Delhi cancel the counselling?
Earlier in May, students unions from AIIMS Delhi and Bhopal had petitioned the Supreme Court demanding that the roster-point reservation system for preferential candidates, as followed by JIPMER (Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research), should be implemented in all AIIMS institutes as well. On May 13, the Supreme Court passed an order in the students' favour.
August 31 was the date before which all the Rounds of Counselling ought to have been completed. However, due to the Supreme Court case, the Counselling process got delayed. And then AIIMS Delhi decided to stall further rounds of counselling.
Back to the present
"We have requested for an urgent hearing," informed Dr Sarthak Vats, MBBS PG aspirant from AIIMS Delhi. "The AIIMS notice was issued very suddenly. We had completed the registration formalities for INI-CET by August 31. And we were waiting for the counselling to begin," he said.
Dr Sunita, another aspirant from the institute, explained that since the matter was court-related, and they were preparing for the counselling to begin, they did not have time to do anything about it. "We sent an email to the Director, but that didn't turn out to be fruitful. Then, we approached FAIMA and they supported us," she said.
Dr Sarthak said that FAIMA is one of the petitioners in the SC plea that they filed. Yesterday, September 27, the members of FAIMA from AIIMS Delhi went to meet the newly appointed Director at the institute, Dr M Srinivas, in person and apprised him of the matter. The association also submitted a letter to him in this regard.
"We are writing to you today with a kind request to look into a matter which is very urgent, extremely important and has been disturbing the residents of various INIs for the last one week," the FAIMA letter reads. A FAIMA member from AIIMS Delhi, Dr Suvrankar Datta informed EdexLive that now the plea filed in the SC is listed to be heard on September 30. "We are waiting to get a copy of the petition," he said.
Worrisome consequences?
"The cancellation affects about 2,000 aspirant doctors. There are about 1,000 INI seats, out of which, about 600 are now lying vacant," Dr Sarthak said. He added that the vacant seats also result in a shortage of doctors. "A single doctor has to treat many and this leads to doctors being overburdened and overworked," he stated.
"We do not know the technicalities of the matter. But as students, from our point of view, we have worked hard for the exam, and we need to get the results. We must be able to appear for the counselling," Dr Sunita mentioned.
