The stand-off between protesting medicos and the Jammu and Kashmir administration over the pooling of MBBS and postgraduate seats in the All-India Quota (AIQ) from this year continued on Monday, even as Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha promised to plead for deferment with the Centre.
Following days of protests by MBBS students of different colleges in the Kashmir valley and the Jammu province, Mr. Sinha met a delegation of NEET Post-Graduate MD/MS aspirants on Sunday and promised to “request the Central government to defer it for the current year”.
The L-G administration has made it clear that the pooling of seats to the AIQ will take place eventually, even if there may be a one-year deferment.
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The aspirants, however, have expressed their disappointment over the outcome of the meeting with the Lt. Governor.
‘Lack of facilities’
“All the members [of the delegation], including the Director of the SKIMS Medical College, requested the L-G not to implement this policy. It will be catastrophic for the healthcare sector of Kashmir, which is highly dependent on the government sector. The aspiring doctors of Kashmir also will not be able to compete with the students from the rest of India due to the lack of facilities,” a PG student said.
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He said there were fears that the SKIMS, being a deemed university, may lose all the seats to the AIQ and the Jammu and Kashmir's government medical colleges will lose 50% of seats.
Jammu and Kashmir was the only State in India with separate rules governing the medical colleges prior to the decision to end its special constitutional status in 2019. The special provisions included 50% reservation of seats for women candidates, which has gone a long way in empowering them.
At present, Jammu and Kashmir has 543 postgraduate seats for MD and MS. As per pooling rules, the Union Territory (UT) will have to surrender 271 seats to the AIQ. Similarly, from the current 1,000 medical seats, it will have to contribute 150 to the AIQ.
Meanwhile, protests by medicos against the government move continued on Monday in different colleges in the UT.
Kashmir-based Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) has also opposed the move. “Pooling will mar the future prospects of aspiring candidates. It would open the floodgates for outsiders and will impact the local aspirants gravely,” DAK president Nisar ul Hassan said.
Valley-based medicos are planning to form a joint forum of multiple batches and seek retention of the old mechanism of selection for the MBBS and PG courses.