14 July,2011 08:03 AM IST | | Parth Satam
Students complain delay by Zilla Parishad will mar their chances of bagging reserved category seats in medical colleges in state
About 40 students from the reserved category have complained to authorities at the BJ Medical College of being victims of carelessness on the part of Zilla Parishad officials. The students, from districts like Ahmednagar, Satara and Sangli, claimed that they had applied for caste validity certificatesu00a0-- a mandatory document to be submitted while seeking admission in reserved seats according to a recent government resolutionu00a0-- at the Zilla Parishad office three months ago.
The office is yet to issue these certificates to the students despite several reminders by the students. As a result, the students can not avail of the seat reservation, which is a constitutional provision, and will be counted among general category candidates.
"Tuesday was the last date for submission of applications at the BJ Medical College, which was the designated center. According to an earlier provision, an application can be admitted on the basis of an undertaking in the absence of an original certificate, but the new rule explicitly says an original copy is required. We are yet to get this copy and that's why we fear we will lose out on seats," said a student, requesting anonymity.
When parents and students approached the college authorities with the undertakings, officials showed them the GR. "We know about the students' problems and a lot of them have approached us. However, we haven't received any instructions from the state government and that's why we have filled up the forms in the general category as of now," said B J Medical College spokesperson Dr Mangesh Bankar.
Certificate rush
Similar problems were faced by engineering aspirants over the procurement of domicile certificates. The Citizen's Facilitation Centre (CFC) at the Collector's Office saw massive crowds for this document and, with its meager manpower, found it tough to deal with so many applications for the certificate. This affected hundreds of students.
