CALCUTTA, 21 December 2004 — Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has refused to entertain an SOS from Non-Resident Indian (NRI) MBBS students expelled from two West Bengal medical colleges virtually sealing their fate.
But Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee announced on Sunday that she will stand by the victims of the Left Front government’s “greed” come what may — an assurance that means little in real terms.
The evicted students and their parents sent a lengthy e-mail to the president seeking his intervention in the high-profile capitation fee scandal that has destroyed the career of as many as 74 NRI aspiring doctors.
But yesterday Kalam’s secretary telephoned the father of one of the expelled MBBS students to convey Kalam’s response that only the Supreme Court can provide relief to them.
The secretary said that Kalam is fully conversant with the case but there is nothing he can do to help as the apex court has already given its verdict. A pall of gloom descended on the expelled students who are on hunger strike for the seventh consecutive day when the president’s categorical response was communicated to them.
“We were ready to fly to New Delhi to meet the president but his unexpected reply has broken our hearts and shattered our hopes”, said an expelled MBBS student.
Students and their guardians say they are totally in the dark about arrangements apparently being made by Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya to bail out the victims of the state government’s ill-fated cash-for-medical seats scheme.
Meanwhile, the government has started refunding the one million rupees capitation fee it charged each NRI for studying medicine in Calcutta’s S.S.K.M. Medical College and the Midnapore Medical College where 50 percent of seats were reserved for them.
The vacancies are being filled by students from the merit list of the 2003 Joint Entrance Examination results who went to court against the communist government’s controversial scheme to admit NRI students against cash payments.
Mamata Banerjee accused the West Bengal government of “cheating” NRIs. “If this is not a breach of faith, what is it”, Banerjee asked.
The opposition MP said she would instruct party MLAs to raise the issue in the current winter session of the West Bengal legislative assembly.
In July 2003, the state government issued a public notification reserving 50 percent of 208 seats in the two medical colleges for NRI students at one million rupees per seat.
