In yet another chapter of the AIIMS-vs-government duel, the premiere medical institute has rejected the report of a Union Health Ministry-appointed committee which described  rampant discrimination against the scheduled caste and schedule tribe students at the medical institute.

Set up to investigate the caste bias allegations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, the three-member committee was headed by the University Grants Commission chairman Sukhadeo Thorat. It said caste discrimination are evident in the institute’s  assessment system and in the hostel and campus life.

But an AIIMS committee, created to look into the panel’s recommendations, has rejected the report in totality saying it was “biased” and the “charges are unsubstantiated.” This report has not  been submitted to the AIIMS president and Health Minister  Anbumani Ramadoss.

“The Thorat committee acted with a clear prejudice to deliver a misleading report that relies on imaginary facts, flawed methodology and baseless conclusions apparently with the sole purpose of discrediting AIIMS,” says the eight-member AIIMS panel headed by Dr C S Pandav, a professor of community medicine.

Reacting to the charges one of the committee members Dr K M Shyamprasad told Deccan Herald, “AIIMS is not sensitive to caste discrimination and the present situation exposes the hard core attitude of the institute on caste issues.” “They (AIIMS administration including the director Dr P Venugopal) have a don’t-  care attitude.  But the SC/ST students are suffering,” said Dr Shyamprasad.  Most of the SC/ST students complained about unfair evaluation of their answer papers as well as practical and viva. The students said their views were suppressed during the anti-quota agitation when AIIMS was at the centre of a nationwide agitation.

The AIIMS committee says that the administration had taken all possible steps to contain the impact of such an expression of resentment on its campus.