Hit by Maratha & EWS quotas, gen category med students launch protest

Nagpur: Graduate doctors aspiring to pursue post graduate courses in medicine from the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on Tuesday protested the state government’s decision to implement new reservation quotas, leaving very limited seats for general or open category meritorious students.
MBBS doctors who have cleared PG-NEET claimed their careers are in serious peril due to the new reservations for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC — popularly known as Maratha reservation), and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in PG seats. They have sought an appointment with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to discuss the possible solutions to this issue and their future prospects.

“Only 233 seats are available for 2,054 MBBS doctors from open category who have qualified for PG admissions. Even if we add 37 seats in private medical colleges, only 270 seats are available for general category students. This type of implementation will be the end of meritorious students in Maharashtra,” said Dr Sameer Deshmukh, a resident at GMC.

The seat matrix declared by the CET Cell says 3,913 candidates have qualified for PG admissions in Maharashtra for 1,441 PG seats. Out of these, 2,024 candidates belong to open category. For them, 233 seats are available in all state-run GMCs. These seats can be claimed by reserved candidates as well.

Condition in private medical colleges is even worse. As 16% of SEBC cannot be implemented in management and NRI quota of private colleges, the government has added this number to the state quota, which has increased SEBC quota to nearly 30%, eventually leaving only 37 seats for general category students in private medical colleges.

Dr TP Lahane, Director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra state, said general category students should go for seats of management quota in private medical colleges.

“It’s a fact that only 37 seats are available for general category students in private colleges. We had no option but to implement the reservation as the high court has directed the same. However, we have deliberately kept the management quota and NRI quota out of any reservation. All 215 seats are available for general category students,” he said.

However, fees in management and NRI quota is three to five times higher than the state quota seats, so this suggestion has left the protesting students angry.

ISSUE AT A GLANCE

UNTIL NOW: Reservation limited to 52% in Maharashtra

NOW: Reservation rises to 78% after including SEBC and EWS quota

EWS Reservation: 10 % EWS reservation introduced in Feb 2019 by central government and hastily implemented in Maharashtra within months, despite assurances from the centre about proportionate (25%) increment in seats soon

SEBC reservation: 16% SEBC reservation (Maratha reservation) introduced on November 30, 2018, by state government and implemented in this session. Doctors claim this is against the SEBC Act, which says “new reservation shall not be implemented after commencement of admission procedure, which includes commencement of registration for the entrance exam for admission”. NEET-PG registration began on November 2, 2018, almost a month before SEBC was announced

Can MBBS doctor be educationally backward? General category students say the MBBS degree in itself a great equalizer and it is unfair to pit one doctor against another on the basis of ‘social and educational backwardness’

Seat position after implementation of SEBC and EWS in GMCs

Total seats of PG (MD/MS) of State Quota

972

Total Reserved seats for SC/ST/VJ/NT/OBC (50%)

486

Total reserved seats for SEBC (Maratha Quota) (16%)

156

Total Reserved seats for EWS (10%)

97

Seats available for OPEN category

233

Total students qualified from OPEN category

2024

Seat position after implementation of SEBC and EWS in Private medical colleges

Total seats of PG (MD/MS)

469

Seats reserved for Management and NRI quota (35% Management and 15% NRI)

215

Seats available for State Quota

254

Total Reserved seats for SC/ST/VJ/NT/OBC (50%)

117

Total reserved seats for SEBC (Maratha Quota)

75

Total Reserved seats for EWS

25

Seats available for OPEN category

37