After major anxiety among students and parents, the Maharashtra medical education department has withdrawn the 10 per cent EWS quota for MBBS seats in private colleges. The decision came after meetings with officials and concerns about reduced open-category seats without an increase in total intake. NEET UG counselling remains on track.
Parents meet Minister of Medical Education Hasan Mushrif (in white) at his residence on Tuesday. Pic/By Special Arrangement
After facing much anxiety over the past two weeks, MBBS aspirants heaved a sigh of relief as the department of medical education has retracted its last-minute decision to implement a 10 per cent quota for students from the economically weaker section (EWS) in private colleges.
As per a notice released by the department on July 30, “For MBBS/BDS/BAMS/BHMS and BUMS courses, this reservation [for EWS students] will be applicable only if the Central government /respective council increases existing seats. For courses other than MBBS/BDS/BAMS/BHMS and BUMS, 10% EWS reservation will be applicable on available seats.”
The row began last week, when just a day before admissions began for undergraduate medicos, on July 23, the NEET (UG) guidebook was released with an annexure stating that 10 per cent of seats in private medical colleges would be reserved for students belonging to the economically weaker section. This quota was seemingly introduced without increasing the total number of seats at the medical college, sparking fears about the availability of open-category seats.
On Tuesday, July 29, a group of parents whose wards have already begun their medical college counselling visited Maharashtra’s Minister of Medical Education, Hasan Mushrif, and subsequently Medical Education Secretary Dhiraj Kumar over fears regarding admissions. “I was very scared about my position after reading the annexure,” said a student who visited the minister on Tuesday morning. “I am applying to private medical colleges all across Maharashtra, and I feared my chances of securing admission would have been slimmer if more open-category seats were reduced,” said the aspiring medico.
While NEET (UG) counselling is already underway, NEET PG students — who are yet to appear for the exams — were also worried about their academic position. “My son is hoping to apply to private medical colleges in the city. Seeing the seats cut down for UG, we were already afraid that postgraduate students will have to deal with the same issue,” a parent told mid-day.
After the meeting on Tuesday, Mushrif redirected the parents to the medical education secretary. “As many as 350 to 360 UG seats were at stake across all private colleges across Maharashtra. As for PG, only 50 per cent of seats come under the state quota, and they were at risk of being further slashed,” Sudha Shenoy, a representative of the students and parents, said.
“‘We had presented the secretary with past court orders that ruled in favour of medical students, and now ministers and government officials have helped us by acting speedily. It’s fortunate that the decision came in before the seat matrix was put out,” she added.
The medical secretary was also asked to provide greater transparency regarding college fees, since students still refer to a college’s historic academic fees while considering it for allotment.
NEET (UG) counselling is already underway, and seat allotment is scheduled to follow soon. It was mentioned in NEET (UG) guidelines brochure that in “government/government-aided/corporation/private unaided institutions (excluding minority institutions), 10 per cent of the available seats under state quota shall be reserved for candidates belonging to the EWS category”.
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