The Maharashtra government on Thursday said it would seek to increase quota of admissions for postgraduate medical courses from the Centre to accommodate Maratha students who have taken admission under 16% quota but will now be deprived of it due to a stay on the process by Supreme Court.
Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, who heads the Cabinet sub-committee on issues related to reservation for Maratha community, said, “The students will face some problem in admission only this year. The process will be smooth from next year. We are hopeful that majority of students out of those who have taken admission under 16% quota will be admitted in the course of their choice based on merit. It is likely that only 30-35 students may not get admission. To accommodate them, the State government will seek increase in seats from the Centre.”
On November 30 last year, the State government passed a law reserving 16% seats for Maratha community under the socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) category. As per the court observation, since the admission process was initiated on November 3, the reservation under SEBC category cannot be granted for this year’s admissions in post-graduate medical courses. “We held our view that even though notification was issued on November 3, the process began in Maharashtra in February this year. Therefore, we pleaded that 16% quota should be held valid for this year as well. However, the court held a different view,” Mr. Patil said. The court said the State government should take all possible measures to ensure that students are not deprived of admission. Hence the demand for increase in seats has been raised.
Vinod Patil, one of the pro-Maratha petitioners in the case said the Maratha community had cautioned the State government that it should extend the reservation in a manner that would not lead to legal hurdles. “We demand that within the next 24 hours the State government take a decision which will not lead to wasting of a year for Maratha students. The community held no political position in the Lok Sabha polls, but if the State government fails to take any stand, they would go against the government in the Assembly polls,” he said.
The Opposition too slammed the government saying it is evident that it did not want Maratha community to gain benefits of reservation. “The government did not purposely defend the reservation in Supreme Court and deprived students from the benefits. We feel that the government has no interest in giving benefits of reservation to Maratha community,” said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.