The Maharastra ministry of medical education has reserved a 20% quota in postgraduate PG medical admissions for in-service medical officers. The government issued an order on Monday evening which comes nearly six months after the Uddhav Thackeray -led government announced that 25% reservation PG medical admissions for MBBS Graduates who serve in district hospitals for a minimum of three years before applying here.
The government resolution said from the academic year 2022-23, approval regarding the reservation of 20% seats for in-service candidates for admissions to PG medical and diploma courses in government and civic medical colleges. According to this, they said reservation of in-service candidates will not get extra marks for their work, and the admission wholly depends on the NEET score only.
The in-service medical officers have been given 50% reservation of seats in post MBBS diploma courses till 2017. Also, medical officers got the benefit of additional marks for work done in remote or difficult areas. Due to the low demand for diploma courses, this reservation was discontinued after 2017.
In this academic year, 2021-22 Bombay High court heard a plea by a medical officer who argued for restoring the in-service Quota. Through this Dr. Suryakant Lodhe highlighted the need for providing health care services in rural or urban areas and to address malnutrition or child mortality rates there. The High court gave the time to the government until March to come up with new resolutions of reservations.
The meeting is held between medical education and health departments Amit Deshmukh and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in March. But, In April the announcement is made that 25% reservation in state quota seats for in-service medical officers is reserved in postgraduate medical admissions.
However, the admission brochure for this year is already released and there’s no mention of the new quota. This change will affect the admission preference of students, even the top score of NEET PG because the pool of seats will reduce substantially and there will be fewer options for seats in medical colleges said, medical admission activists. Also, the medical aspirants are not agreed with the decision as they feel the pool seats for general category candidates keep diminishing with the implementation of new reservation quotas.
