Port Blair, July 19: Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray, Member of Parliament along with a delegation from the Action Council on Professional Education, Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprising Mr. D. Ayyappan and Mr. Shankar Rao, today met Mr. Gulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India at New Delhi and requested him to enhance the MBBS and BDS quota for the candidates of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It was brought to the notice of the Minister by the MP that there was no increase in the medical seats for A & N Islands for the last 11 years. The Member of Parliament explained to the Minister in detail the need to enhance the medical seats for the islands. Mr. Gulam Nabi Azad, after hearing the delegation, assured the MP that the matter will be looked into favourably by him.
Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray and the above delegation also called on the Additional Secretary (Higher Education) in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and requested to relax the newly introduced eligibility criteria of cut off marks of 48 in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination for allotment of Engineering seats reserved by the Govt. of India for the candidates of A & N Islands. The MP had informed the Additional Secretary that if relaxation is not given, a number of Engineering seats will remain vacant/unfilled as eligible candidates are not available for allotment of seats. The official has agreed to the request made by the MP and assured that necessary communication in this regard will be sent to the A & N Administration within a week time.
The MP had also requested the Additional Secretary to allot supernumerary seats in NIT for the students of A & N Islands to make up the shortfall of seats which the islands got till 2009. About 45 NIT seats were available for the candidates of A & N Islands till 2009. It was pointed out by the MP that only 21 NIT seats were allotted to the candidates of A & N Islands in the NIT Durgapur as Home State quota this year. The Additional secretary assured the MP that the demand for supernumerary seats in NITs will be considered favourably.
No doubt that this sort of initiatives will help to boost the literacy rate of the Island. But, administration should also have some system in place to utilize the knowledge and skills of students who had been sponsored by the administration for their higher studies.
On successful completion of their degrees, almost all of them aspires to migrate to developed countries or join established institutions. How many of them actualy come back with an intention to do something for their own community which could help in the upliftment of the people on a long run ???