MBBS: Tehsildar gets only one ST form application

While the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has extended the date of submission of preference forms for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students seeking admission to MBBS courses,the Pune tehsildar’s office has so far received only one application for caste certificate. Reason: lack of awareness among students on how to procure relevant documents,officials said.

“The tehsildar’s office has issued more than 1,000 certificates a day last week and about 650 certificates a day this week. We have set up separate form collection counters for admission applications. We have even worked for 48 hours straight to keep up with the admission rush. The application requires one to mention the purpose for getting a caste certificate along with the affidavit. So we have records of engineering and MBA students in large numbers,but just one medical student so far,” said Tehsildar Deepa Bhosale. She has urged the students to come forward with the relevant documents so that they don’t face problems with admissions.

As per the Bombay High Court order issued on July 12,DMER has issued a notice asking students,who were not able to submit their preference forms between July 4 and 12 for MHTCET 2011 due to lack of caste certificates,to submit their forms till July 18 at Grant Medical College in Mumbai. For serial numbers 1-80,000,the submission time will be from 9 am to 1 pm,and for serial numbers 80,001 to 192685,the timings will be 1.30 pm onwards. The first selection list scheduled to be declared on July 18,will be declared on July 19.

“I am aware of the problem of caste certificates. Last year,quite a few of my friends had to forego admissions as they were not able to procure caste certificates and were not under the general merit list as well. Some of them were told at the time of the submission of forms that they need to have a caste certificate from their native village,” said a student from a medical college in Pune.