A 20% quota for postgraduate (PG) medical admissions for medical officers currently employed has been announced by the medical education ministry of Maharashtra.
Nearly six months have passed since the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led administration declared a 25% reservation in PG medical admissions for MBBS graduates who work in district hospitals for at least three years prior to enrolling. This is when the government directive from Monday evening was issued.
According to a government resolution, 20% of the seats for PG medical and diploma degree admissions in the state’s government- and civic-run medical colleges would be reserved for in-service applicants starting in the academic year 2022–2023. Apart from this restriction, it stated that in-service candidates will only be admitted based on their performance on the NEET-PG.
In-service medical officers were given 50% reservation of seats in post MBBS diploma courses till 2017. In addition, the medical officers also got the benefit of additional marks for work done in remote or difficult areas. The reservation was discontinued after 2017 due to reduced demand for diploma courses.
The move, however, has once again angered a section of students who complain that this quota will deplete the pool of seats for general category students.
“The admissions brochure for this year is already released and there’s no mention of the new quota. The change will affect the admission preference of students, even top scorers of NEET-PG because the pool of seats will reduce substantially, which will eventually leave them with very little option but to opt for seats in private medical colleges,” said Muzaffar Khan, a medical admission activist.
