AHMEDABAD: The state government has announced that children of non-resident Gujaratis (NRGs) with Overseas Citizen of India (
OCI) card who have cleared their SSC and HSC examination from Gujarat Secondary and
Higher Secondary Education Board or the
Central Board of Secondary Education affiliated schools situated in Gujarat will also be eligible for admissions in the government quota apart from the 15% NRI quota in self-financed institutes.
The announcement was made by deputy chief minister Nitin Patel. Speaking to reporters Patel said, “The government has decided to allow children of NRGs, who have OCI card, to be admitted in MBBS under the general state quota if the student has cleared board exams from the state.”
Officials said that parents of such students have to be born in Gujarat and even if the students are born outside India, they would be eligible. The deputy CM said all candidates will have to submit domicile certificates.
Nitin Patel said, “At present, those students who fail to get admitted in MBBS due to low NEET scores and take admission in Ayurveda or naturopathy etc are not permitted to be admitted in MBBS later, even if they score required marks in their next NEET exam and fulfil other eligibility criteria.”
Patel added, “The government has decided that even those students who had earlier qualified in their HSc science examination, and had scored good marks in NEET 2018, will also be given a chance to be admitted in medical courses.”
Poonamchand Parmar, additional chief secretary (ACS), health and family welfare department said that, “Only those who fulfil domicile certification rules will be eligible for getting admission under the state quota in MBBS. This decision has been made to prevent misuse of state quota.”
The Gujarat government has made it mandatory for students to submit their domicile certificate while seeking admissions to medical and paramedical courses in the state. The government has clarified that admissions to medical, dental, Ayurveda, homoeopathy and naturopathy courses will be based on the scores of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Admissions to nursing and physiotherapy courses will be carried out on the basis of class XII marks.
Barring students whose parents have transferable jobs, all students seeking admission to medical and paramedical courses will have to submit their domicile certificate. The certificate is issued to those who have been residents of the state for a decade. There are 4,200 medical seats in the state with 350 reserved for NRI students.
The state government has decided that admissions to medical and dental courses will be centralized even for management and NRI quotas. Officials said that the government has made it clear that only those students who have cleared class X, XI, and XII science stream exams in Gujarat are eligible to apply for medical courses in the state.
Illustration for representational purpose.