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HomeIndia'Server crash' dents dreams of Dantewada's 11 SC, ST & OBC NEET...

‘Server crash’ dents dreams of Dantewada’s 11 SC, ST & OBC NEET aspirants, despite making cut

District officials say they are in touch with the aggrieved students and that the matter has been resolved. Aspirants, parents disagree.

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New Delhi: 16-year-old Padma Made, a tribal girl from Chhattisgarh’s Maoist-hit Dantewada district was all set to become her family’s first ever doctor, before a “server crash” put a dent on her hopes. Now, her dreams hang by a thread.

Padma scored 408 out of 720 marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exams at 87.05 percentile, way above the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category cut-off of 113 marks this year.

She is, however, among 11 students from Dantewada, all of them of reserved categories, who have qualified the NEET exam, for admission to medical colleges, but have missed the state counselling sessions. 

The reason: Their registration forms for the counselling sessions were not uploaded onto the Chhattisgarh Directorate of Medical Education website on time. 

The students were supposed to register for counselling from 6 November. The last date of submission of forms was on 14 November. 

The parents and children told ThePrint through the phone that since they were unaware of how the process works, authorities at the ‘Choo Lo Aasman’ coaching institute, established by the Chhattisgarh government in 2011, had offered to help. 

Madda Ram Wek, father of NEET qualifying student Peeyusha Wek, told ThePrint that teachers at Choo Lo Aasman, where all 11 studied, had assured the families that they would file the registration forms.

“We came to the office (in Dantewada) on 13 November to ask if the registration was done and they said it was done for the state as well as the national counseling process,” Wek said. “But when we did not find the names of our kids in the first state list, we were told that it happened because the server was not working.”

The students are also not eligible to file fresh registration for the second round of counselling, meant for colleges in the state, as only those who filled the form and were not selected in the first list will be allotted a college in the second round.

“If they had told us about this server problem earlier, we would have found some other way to do it,” Wek told ThePrint. “This proves that these people do not want the kids of us tribals to become doctors and engineers. They talk about the benefits for adivasis but when it comes to action, they do not implement it.”

Dantewada district magistrate Deepak Soni told ThePrint that the administration is in touch with the students and has helped them register for the national counselling. He claimed that the matter has been resolved. 

“There was some server issue but we cannot directly blame the counsellors. The counselors have also been doing their job for the past 8 years and this has happened for the first time,” Soni told ThePrint over the phone. “However, we have relieved them from the duty and the administration is exploring all the alternatives to help the kids. We also got the kids registered during the second round of national counselling.”

Speaking to ThePrint, Dantewada District Education Officer Rajesh Karma also said that the administration is looking into the matter and that necessary action has been initiated. “The district magistrate had ordered action against those responsible for the carelessness. We have suspended the teacher and operator of the coaching institute,” he said.


Also read: Bastar police plans course to reform jailed Maoists, ‘influence their ideology’


Dreams hang by a thread 

The children have all been entered into the national counselling process but they believe that they won’t get medical seats as they are limited at the central level. 

Of the 11 children, seven are girls and four are boys. Eight of these children belong to the scheduled tribe category, two are of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and one is from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.

The eight tribal children would have easily made the first round as the ST cut-off is 113 marks this year. 

While Padma Made had scored 408 marks, Peeyusha Wek had scored 391 marks,  Pintu Vek had 346 marks, Mahesh Kashyap (339), Indu (309), Aarti Netam (301), Jayant Kumar (291) and Aishwarya Nag (248).

In the state list released on 15 November, 775 ST students had made the cut. The highest had a score of 520 marks and the lowest score was 118. Chhattisgarh has six medical colleges and a total of 476 seats, of which 146 are reserved for ST candidates. 

The three other students also cleared the cut-offs. Sudheer Kumar Rajak, an OBC candidate scored 502 marks,  Harsha Sagar (SC) had 265 while Anita (OBC) secured 245 marks. The OBC and SC cut-offs were also both 113 marks this year.

Parents, the affected children and even government authorities admit that it would be difficult for them to now get medical seats in the national counselling sessions. 

“We are not hoping to get a good college in the national counselling list as our marks are not as good,” said Peeyusha Wek who has scored 391. 

“I feel very disappointed that this has happened,” she added. “I was hoping to get a good college in first counselling itself. But since our registration was not done, we missed the opportunity. Another year of my life will go waste if I decide to prepare again.” 

Dantewada District Education Officer Rajesh Karma admitted it was a tough situation but said some of the students are being provided with the option to study veterinary sciences or AYUSH courses. “Some of them have agreed to prepare for another year,” he claimed. “We will provide all the facilities to help those appearing again.”

Parents, meanwhile, are unhappy with the whole situation. 

“Why should they take a BDS or AYUSH seat if they are capable of an MBBS seat?” asked Madda Ram Wek, Peeyusha’s father. “They worked hard despite the Covid lockdown and online classes. We never even thought our kids would appear for an exam and become doctors. Why do this injustice to us now?”


Also read: SC, OBC aspirants for UPSC, JEE to now get free coaching at ‘best’ centres of their choice


 

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1 COMMENT

  1. The Deprived applicants of SC/ST/OBC place their grievance before the National Commission of SC/ST /OBC to resolve their opportunity of representation with special provision for current or next year as backlog quota. It’s very harsh to mentally fit with same adroitness for NEET and grab opportunity. Actually, authority acknowledge very well about the pathetic situation about the deprived applicants but they did willful negligence & discrimination with applicants & choked chance of upliftment. The Upper caste administration don’t want to be egalitarian society intentionally maintain the caste supremacy due to mere birth in a family.

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