Aizawl, June 1: Alleged favouritism over allotment of seats in the Imphal Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) under the Mizoram government quota has sparked a controversy here with the names of few political bigwigs of the state being dragged into it.
The controversy started with allegations that the state government had resorted to manipulations to accommodate chosen candidates for the highly sought-after post-graduate course at RIMS, reserved only for medical practitioners working in the state-run hospitals in Mizoram.
Sources said four out of the seven reserved seats at RIMS were allotted to candidates who did not meet the selection criterion after the state government failed to nominate the required number of government doctors for the course and invited applications from general MBBS degree holders.
All three candidates selected for the course are general MBBS degree holders and have managed to make it to the course by superseding government doctors, who have, in the process, also lost their scope for promotion.
In a release, the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) today accused the government of manipulating the rules and guidelines to accommodate ineligible candidates among whom three are close relatives of the state forest minister, the director of health and family welfare and the health minister.
The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) also asked the state government to abide by the rules while allotting seats for courses on general medicine, paediatrics, radiotherapy, pharmacology, obstetrics and gynaecology, biochemistry and anaesthesiology.
A clarification from the government, however, stated that 21 candidates, including six government doctors, had appeared for the selection examination.
Of them, only four candidates from the non?government sectors could clear the test, it stated.