BHOPAL, June 25 (PTI)

The Medical Council of India has decided to lower the minimum qualifying marks for admission to post-graduate courses of the medical colleges for students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The council at its meeting held recently decided to lower the minimum marks required for admission in P G medical courses from 50 per cent to 40 per cent in the pre-PG examination for the SC and ST students, an official release said here today.

The Madhya Pradesh Government had already decided to abolish negative marking system in pre-PG examination.

With this, now students belonging to SC and ST will find it easier to get admission in PG courses.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in the interests of the students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had taken up the matter of lowering the minimum marks with President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The chief minister had requested for reducing the minimum qualifying marks from 50 to 40 per cent for the benefit of the students belonging to these categories.

He also referred to the fact that most of the population of Scheduled Castes and tribes reside in rural areas and in spite of having knowledge and talent these students tended to score poorly in the competitive examinations because of their background.

The chief minister urged for removing this disparity by lowering the minimum qualifying marks for the students belonging to SC and ST.