Tuesday, December 21 2004 16:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today (Dec 21, 2004) emphasised that talks with the aggrieved NRI medical students, whose entry to the State-run medical colleges was scrapped by the Supreme Court, were still on to work out 'some relief' for them.

"We are still holding talks," was Bhattacharjee's reply when scribes asked what the State Government's course of action would be after the NRI students had declined to accept his offer of an alternative medical science-related course at the West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT).

The students, on a hunger strike to register their protest against the State's 'insensitive' approach towards their future, had refused to accept any such compromise formula last evening.

Bhattacharjee, who had promised yesterday (Dec 20, 2004) that the State would move a larger bench of the Supreme Court to explain its stand, also held forth an alternative plan to provide 'some relief' by accommodating these students in an allied course by the Higher Education department and WBUT.

The WBUT council would meet shortly to discuss the State Government's proposal.

Meanwhile, most of the 69 NRI students denied entry into the State-run SSKM and Midnapore medical colleges, continued their hunger strike for the second day today.