Sammilita Samajik Andolon, a citizen’s platform, today demanded the government to stop giving admission to non-indigenous students in the reserved or quota seats allotted for ethnic minority students.
A statement signed by 22 eminent citizens of the country also demanded proper investigation in this regard and termed the whole process as “irregular.”
As per the statement, ethnic minority students are allowed to get admission in reserved seats provided by the government in 37 government medical colleges of Bangladesh which are run under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
But for a long time, non-indigenous students are getting admitted to the colleges under those reserved seats while ethnic minority students are being deprived.
According to the admission advertisement for the academic year 2020-2021, there are a total of 30 reserved seats allotted for ethnic minority students during medical college admissions across Bangladesh.
Among them, nine seats are for Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) ethnic minority students, eight for ethnic minority students from different districts and 13 for ethnic minority students at Rangamati Medical College. Apart from this, there are separately three reserved seats for general students from CHT students, said the statement.
However, on the publication of the medical colleges’ results On April 4, 2021, it was seen that among the nine reserved seats for the ethnic minority students of CHT, only is from the non-indigenous community.
Also, among the right reserved seats allotted for different districts, five of them are from the non-ethnic minority group.
Although there is an allocation of three reserved seats for general students of CHT, six students got selected who are not from ethnic minority communities according to the government gazette where the 50-ethnic minority group is listed, said the statement.
The statement demanded cancellation of the admission list of the non-ethnic minority students who were selected under the reserved seats for ethnic minority students.
Human rights activist Advocate Sultana Kamal, Khushi Kabir, Oikya Nap President Pankaj Bhattacharya, Dhaka University Prof MM Akash, Liberation War Museum Trustee Dr Sarwar Ali and Presidium member of the platform Ramendra Majumder were among the signatories in the statement.
