Support gathering for ‘save merit’ campaign in city

Nagpur: ‘Save Merit Save India’ movement initiated to protect the interests of open category students amid the growing reservation quota in higher education is gaining momentum in the city.
On Tuesday, more than 150 prominent citizens from Nagpur representing different fields, gathered at the Jaivik Hall of the Orange City Hospital to discuss the further course of action of this movement. They unanimously decided to create awareness about the ill-effects of increasing reservation in higher education. It was decided that a formal front will be formed and various campaigns and events will be held to involve various sections of society into the movement. They will finally take out a grand rally at the beginning of new academic session and meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
“We are not against reservation. But exceeding it up to 78% is injustice with the meritorious students of open category. Even Supreme Court has said that the limit of reservation should not exceed 50% mark,” said ophthalmologist Dr Anil Laddhad.
After implementation of quota for socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC — popularly known as Maratha reservation) and economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher education, the students of open category are left with a very few seats in government and private colleges.
As medical admissions start early, the PG medical students were first to suffer from this. The medical students are protesting the faulty implementation of these two quotas right from November 2018. However, after JEE results were announced on Monday evening, engineering students too realized that they will be facing similar debacle. On Tuesday, representatives of engineering, law, commerce, as well as industry fields participated in the meeting.
With a punchline ‘If we don’t come out today, our children will be on roads tomorrow’, they decided to form a comprehensive social media platform for this movement. Representatives of Brahman Sabha, Maheshwari Samaj, Arya Vaishya Samaj, South India Society, Sindhi community decided to use their respective platforms to spread awareness about the movement. Representatives from Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce, VNIT, South Indian Education Society and several other organizations also attended the meeting and showed their solidarity.
“It’s unfortunate that many general category people are still unaware of the serious consequences of this excessive reservation. We have decided to sensitize them about it,” said Dr Sanjay Deshpande of IMA. Save Merit activists will conduct community based events, human chain, social media sensitization etc.
According to the activists, politicians don’t understand any other language but of the vote bank. So, they will form a pressure group by the assembly elections later this year. This group will work on the lines of Arakshan Pidit Varga Morcha, an outfit based in Madhya Pradesh. A presentation given by Dr Rajendra Chandak on the occasion claimed that this organized cost several Assembly seats to the ruling party in MP and eventually they lost State elections.