Fake disability papers caught at Doon Medical College during NEET UG counselling checks

Competition for every MBBS seat in NEET UG is intense. With the contest in the general and other categories very tight, many candidates appear under the persons with disabilities (PwD) quota. The reservation is availed during the counselling process and is a major help for needy and hardworking students facing physical challenges.

A case from Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, has raised serious questions about the transparency of medical counselling. Some candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra are said to have come to a medical college in Dehradun to secure a seat under the NEET UG disability quota. They had tried to prove themselves disabled using forged documents. However, the irregularity was caught in an examination by a medical board of expert doctors appointed by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

Candidates claiming MBBS seats in the disability category under NEET UG counselling had come to Doon Medical College and Hospital. A special medical board had been constituted at the hospital under the chairmanship of Dr RS Bisht. It included specialist doctors from ophthalmology, orthopaedics and other departments.

A total of 18 candidates from UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Maharashtra came for examination. In the ophthalmology and orthopaedics checks, several students who described themselves as 40 to 50 per cent disabled were found to be fully fit.

The doctors were surprised by the cases in the ophthalmology department. Three candidates examined there, two students from Uttarakhand and a girl from Bihar, had shown themselves in their documents as 40 to 50 per cent blind or visually impaired. But when the doctors examined their eyes clinically and with machines, they had no difficulty reading the small letters and charts on the board. The machine reports too did not confirm any disability in their eyes.

The orthopaedics examination also threw up a startling finding. A girl from Maharashtra had stated a 40 per cent disability in her legs, but the examination put her disability at only 12 per cent. This is well below the NEET counselling criterion of at least 40 per cent. A girl from Uttar Pradesh had claimed 45 per cent disability. When the doctors began questioning her closely and raised doubts about her documents, she left without completing the examination. Several other candidates also left on seeing the strict scrutiny and did not appear before the medical board again.

Questions are now being raised about the system under which candidates were issued disability certificates with incorrect figures. How were these certificates issued when there was in fact no disability? The medical board of Doon Medical College has uploaded the certificates of 13 genuine candidates found eligible in the examination. Such fraud has stained the transparency of the country's biggest medical entrance examination. If strict action is not taken in such cases, genuinely needy students with disabilities will be deprived of seats that are their due.