In-service Andhra Pradesh doctors demand 30 per cent State quota in PG admissions

As the State has joined the national pool this year, 50 per cent of seats in the State will be filled at the national level, leaving another 50 per cent seats to be filled.
In-service Andhra Pradesh doctors demand 30 per cent State quota in PG admissions

VIJAYAWADA: The in-service candidates, who have qualified in the NEET PG 2018, are in a dilemma on whether their admissions will be done by weightage of scores or through reservation meant for them. Though early this year, the Medical Council of India issued guidelines that the admissions will be done with 15 per cent weightage, after the protests by in-service doctors, the MCI has put the decision on hold.
NEET PG results were declared recently and 6,078 candidates qualified from Andhra Pradesh alone.

Of them, over 200 candidates belong to in-service category. Until last year, 30 per cent of seats in the State were filled with in-service doctors. As the State has joined the national pool this year, 50 per cent of seats in the State will be filled at the national level, leaving another 50 per cent seats to be filled. In-service doctors are demanding that 30 per cent of the seats at the disposal of the State government be reserved for them as in the previous years.

Dr D Jayadheer, an in-service doctor, says, “A majority of people depend on government hospitals and most of the MBBS doctors are serving at the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and other government institutions. Before surrendering 50 per cent of seats to the national pool as is required under NEET, we used to fill 30 per cent of seats under in-service quota, but now we are left with only 15 per cent seats. This affects the system as no other MBBS doctor would opt for government service if they don’t have service quota.”

According to the Medical Council of India, if any State opts for the national pool, 30 per cent of marks weightage will be provided to  in-service doctors. Presently, there are 738 PG seats in the State. Of them, 369 will go to the national pool and the rest will be filled by the State government. At this stage, the in-service doctors will be granted 30 more marks.

B Dheeraj Kumar of Vijayawada says, “We participate in almost 15 government programmes in a day. Apart from this, we also attend emergencies and our duties irrespective of the timings. With all these, we couldn’t find time for our study and cannot compete with those who graduated freshly and started PG preparation. It is unfair to prepare the merit list based on the rank of non-service candidates in the rankers list. We demand separate ranking and separate reservation and examination without negative marking.”
He said many other States which are in the national pool are giving 30% reservation to in-service doctors in the State quota. Even here, we demand the same. Counselling for PG seats is likely to begin on March 24 and the doctors are planning to take up protests if the government does not follow the in-service quota.

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The New Indian Express
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