Verify nativity of non-TN medical candidates, demands Madurai MLA

A Tamil Nadu MLA has demanded thorough verification of nativity documents of non-natives listed for admission to medical colleges in the state, saying that such students forged the documents, and thereby denied deserving TN students their chance to study in colleges here.

Madurai MLA PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan of the DMK noted that as many as 218 students in the medical admission rank list, eligible for admissions in Tamil Nadu medical colleges, were from other states.

He cited documents which showed that these 218 students were ranked in their native states too — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The counselling for medical admissions began on Monday (July 8) and it would continue till July 13. On June 6, state Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar has released the rank list of 31,353 students for the MBBS course in Tamil Nadu medical colleges.

In Tamil Nadu, candidates of other states residing here, cannot claim nativity and would be considered under Open Category, even if they have studied here from Class 6-12.

However many allege that students from other states are trying to join medical courses here by producing fake nativity certificates.

The admission of a student from another state can be revoked if his/her nativity certificate is found to be fake.

Minister Baskar has said that if a student has applied for a medical seat in both the states, he or she will be disqualified.

Thiagarajan has said the students appearing in the lists in both Tamil Nadu and their native states is a “clear violation under TN government order (GO)”.

“This had happened in 2017. At that time, the state government had issued a GO which allowed admission through dual nativity certificates. There were many discrepancies in such nativity certificates and many fraudulent steps were done to obtain the certificates,” he said.

He later filed a PIL in the Madras High Court’s Madurai bench and got a stay, although admissions had been completed by then.

Following writ petitions by other students, some changes were made in 2018.

This year, the problem has resurfaced again, he said, observing that there is “no official way of validating the nativity certificate related issues”.

He pointed out that in Tamil Nadu, the ranking students are listed according to their application registration numbers and NEET roll numbers.

“However, in other states, the rank lists are based on some unofficial numbers like students ID card numbers,” he said, arguing that this made it difficult to verify those whose names had appeared in other state lists.

Responding to the MLA, health minister Baskar on Wednesday said as many as 3,616 candidates had been made ineligible at the scrutiny stage.

Appreciating the Thiagarajan’s idea, he said, “We have started to get ‘self-declaration’ from the students. Before joining the respective medical colleges, the students should give a ‘self-declaration’ on a ₹100 bond paper attesting their nativity, which if found untrue, could lead to termination of their admission.”

“They have been informed that the government will also initiate criminal proceedings if their declaration is forged one,” Baskar said.