Ranchi, June 21: With only 24 Scheduled Tribe (ST) students crossing the mandatory 40 per cent cut-off marks in medical entrance test held by Jharkhand Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board, the results of which were declared yesterday, confusion prevails over the 30-odd vacant seats reserved for the category.

According to Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines followed by the state board, the cut-off for reserved category aspirants, including ST, is 40 per cent, 10 per cent lower than general category students for admission to cradles offering MBBS. MCI guidelines under clause (2) to (4) states that a reserved category candidate should have 40 per cent marks in both qualifying (intermediate) and competitive exams.

The poor performance of ST medical aspirants — 1,656 students had sat for the exam, while only 24 scored 40 per cent or above — puts the spotlight firmly on the state government’s failure to provide quality education to the tribal population.

“We were asked by the state health department to follow MCI guidelines to admit students to cradles offering MBBS. This year, about 30 seats otherwise reserved for ST aspirants will be vacant,” JCECEB officer on special duty R.K. Singh said.

Counselling for seats in the three state medical colleges — Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Jamshedpur, and Patliputra Medical College & Hospital, Dhanbad — will start from July 15 onwards.

Then, the issue of vacant seats is likely to be raised more vocally.

In 2009, MCI had issued strict directives to the three cradles to cancel admissions of reserved category candidates between 2006-09 who had been enrolled despite scoring below 40 per cent marks in the entrance test. But a section of such students pursuing their MBBS moved to Jharkhand High Court in 2010. Though the matter is sub judice, last year, the high court permitted medical college authorities to admit ST students scoring below 40 per cent on ad hoc basis.

Kumar Vidyacharan Birua, a second-year MBBS student at RIMS, was one such beneficiary. “The matter is sub judice and I don’t want to comment on it. But this is a fact that tribal students lag behind. They have less exposure and money for medical entrance coaching. Socio-economic condition of tribal students hampers their higher studies. The government does precious little,” Birua said.