Time to undo a terrible mistake
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 28, 2013 -

Even though the Government of Manipur may have preferred to remain its eyes and ears shut tightly to the public outcry over cancellation of Manipur MBBS/BDS Entrance Examination, 2013 scheduled on June 9 at the eleventh hour citing some irrelevant Supreme Court rulings, the June 24 notification of the North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (NEIGRIMS), Shillong for conducting entrance test for admission to MBBS courses on August 11 next has once again exposed how the State Government has committed a terrible mistake in interpreting the May 13 interim order of the Supreme Court.

As we had pointed out through this column earlier, the said Supreme Court order has got nothing to do with invalidation of any of the medical entrance tests that are to be conducted by the States and other institutions, which have not conducted the tests so far, but with lifting of the ban imposed on announcing the results of the medical entrance examinations already conducted by an order of the apex court on December 13 last year.

But, apart from failing to understand the meaning of the order, the Government of Manipur has behaved strangely even to the extent of filing a caveat in the High Court to gag the voice of the people crying for revocation of the hastily adopted State Cabinet decision on cancellation of the State medical entrance test. This is very unfortunate.

As a matter of fact, even before NEIGRIMS, an autonomous institute established by Government of India in 1987 under the Meghalaya Registration of Societies Act 1983, came out with its notification for conducting medical entrance test 45 days after the Supreme Court interim order, other State medical entrance tests like Uttar Pradesh Combined Pre-Medical Test (UPCPMT)-2003 had been conducted on June 16 and the results are to be declared on July 5 next.

So, what is the rationale behind the cancellation of Manipur MBBS/BDS Entrance Examination-2013 by the Government of Manipur in such a hasty manner? That too, just two days ahead of its schedule?

Filing a caveat in the law court to gag the voice of the people and belittling the demand for reviewing the State Cabinet on cancellation of the medical entrance test as an outcry by those who are naïve on the issue, or worst still, branding the parents/guardians who are knocking at the door court law to seek justice as desperate ones whose wards failed to quality in the NEET-UG, are surely not something to be expected from a responsible Government.

The terrible mistake over the cancellation of Manipur MBBS/BDS Entrance Examination, 2003 needs to be corrected, the sooner the better, because it is a question of future career of not just a handful of medical aspirants but 5757 students who have applied and registered for appearing in the medical entrance test to realize their dreams of joining one of the most noble professions to serve the people in need of medical attention.