M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec 1: Admission to the first-year MBBS courses in the Medinirai Medical College at Pokhraha in Daltonganj for the academic year 2022-23 based on a disability certificate has raised a hornet’s nest.
Out of the three candidates, one girl is already admitted to the college. The two others, a girl and a boy, are in the queue for admission and are subject to a reassessment of their disability certificate.
Out of those two, one girl has a disability certificate for hearing loss of 40 per cent and another girl has a disability certificate for blindness. The boy has a disability certificate for locomotor disability.
All disability certificates bear the countersignatures of the respective civil surgeons of the districts from where these certificates have been issued. As per sources, although no one is doubting those certificates but at the same time, no one is ready to take it without further authentication for it at the higher centre.
The medical college here has referred the candidates and their respective disability certificates for further authentication of the disability, its percentage and nature like temporary disability or permanent disability at the RIMS Ranchi.
This is because the National Medical Commission has also directed medical colleges across India to be fully satisfied with the verity of the content of the disability certificates.
There are grey areas in the disability certificate. The first is regarding the percentage of the disability per cent and above disability brings in entitlement to the government’s offer in admission placement, job etc. The other is regarding the nature of the disability whether it is temporary and recoverable or permanent.
At MMC Daltonganj, the girl’s certificate for hearing impairment of 40 per cent has to be ascertained if it comes down with hearing aids or not or remains as usual. If it continues to be 40 per cent despite using hearing aids, then the candidate loses the right to admission on the Divyang certificate.
Dr Atul Prakash, a senior faculty of this medical college, said this authentication at RIMS Ranchi is in the larger interest of the person who so presents the disability certificate. The candidates and their guardians should cooperate where authentication for the already issued disability certificates is required at the higher centre.
“We have no audiometry machine here with our medical college and hence authentication has to be done at RIMS Ranchi,” he said.
There are cases where the percentage of disability has been hiked under pressure. Similarly, even temporary and recoverable disability has been presented as a permanent and unrecoverable disability. This why re-authentication is important but it can cause enormous discomfort to the person concerned and their guardian.
A senior doctor refusing to be identified by name and rank said, “Camps are held for disability certificates in blocks. Here influential people, middlemen, even elected people’s representatives build pressure on the medical team to tamper the percentage of the disability and also to term temporary disability as permanent.”
This doctor conceded that he had been to such camps for disability certification where he and his team were subjected to undue pressure which he claimed was brushed aside. He said this kind of undue pressure and haste seen in the disability certificate camps urgently calls for reassessment and reevaluation which should be taken in the right spirit.
