Agartala: The Union health ministry has refused to further relax the eligibility for northeastern tribal and scheduled caste (SC) students for admission to medical colleges, a Tripura government official said here on Friday.

According to the Medical Council of India (MCI), MBBS aspirants of northeastern tribal and SC categories must secure at least 40 percent marks in their class 12 board examinations.

The Tripura government and various political parties of the northeast had been requesting the central government and the MCI to further reduce this eligibility limit.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in a letter to Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has communicated the centre's decision to follow the MCI guidelines.

Azad said: "Though the health ministry agrees in principle that there is a need to make enabling conditions to encourage the underprivileged sections of the society, in so far as medical education is concerned... it is felt that diluting the qualifying criteria would neither be feasible not desirable." IANS