Shillong, Aug 26 (UNI) The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has granted five more additional seats to be reserved for the indigenous students of Meghalaya in the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health&Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), a government official said today.

Earlier, the Ministry had decided to start the MBBS course in the institute with the first intake of 50 students, including 24 students from those northeastern states which do not have a medical college.

However, the Meghalaya government, including the Khasi Student's Union, objected to the arrangement of the seat quota for the indigenous people of the state.

The KSU had earlier stalled the MBBS entrance examination, that was slated to be held in Shillong on August 3, to put pressure to the Union Health Ministry to concede to its demand of 30 per cent reservation of seat.

The Union Health Ministry then decided to hold the entrance examination in Guwahati to evade the KSU's protest.

Altogether, 2,738 students have been selected to appear for the entrance test.

''These five additional seats will be for the indigenous tribal of Meghalaya besides the nine seat reserved for Meghalaya,'' Meghalaya Chief Secretary Ranjan Chatterjee told UNI over the phone from Delhi after a meeting with Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary Naresh Dayal.

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