Admission of non-indigenous students under ‘Indigenous’ quota to the dental unit (BDS) of government dental and medical colleges under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been demanded to be stopped.
Sammilita Samajik Andolon (SSA) made this demand in a written statement, signed by the leaders and activists of the organisation on Saturday.
The statement said non-indigenous students have been selected in the indigenous quota for admission in the Dental Unit (BDS) of government dental and medical colleges.
“We strongly demand to immediately remove all these non-indigenous students from the admission list and publish a new list containing the indigenous students,” SSA said asking for a proper investigation to identify how non-indigenous students were enlisted in the list of indigenous quota.
The results of the admission test for the first year BDS (Dental) course for the students of the 2020-21 academic year were published on September 12. According to the admission notification, five seats have been kept reserved for indigenous, where three are for the hill tribes and two for the other tribes.
Although there is no anomaly found in admitting three students from hilly areas, two Bengali students have been selected for the two seats reserved for other tribals (Code-77). Although 15 students have passed under this code, none of them were selected for admission.
Among the selected students, five are Santals, four Garos, three Manipuris, two Orans and one Hajong student. Non-indigenous students have been selected in place of the 2 indigenous students specified in that code for the plain land indigenous people.
The enlisted non-indigenous students are- (1) Abu Md Mostafa Kamal (Roll-5603750), Sir Salimullah Medical College Dental Unit, Dhaka and (2) Anjum Faria (Roll-5406842), Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Dental Unit.
None of these students are members of the 50 minor ethnic groups (indigenous nationalities), gazetted by the Government of Bangladesh.
