VIJAYAWADA: Days after the Telangana government tweaked its Medical and Dental Colleges Admissions Rules of 2017, allowing all seats in medical colleges — established after June 2, 2014 — to be reserved exclusively for students from the State, it is anticipated that the Andhra Pradesh government will take a similar decision, either simultaneously or shortly thereafter.
If the Andhra government issues such an order, as many as 123 postgraduate (PG) and 580 undergraduate (UG) seats would be added to the unreserved category in 16 government and 18 private colleges— established after the bifurcation of the State. A total of 12 medical colleges with 850 seats were established after June 2, 2014, in Andhra Pradesh. Of the total, five are private and the remaining are government institutes. Only 194 seats are meant for the unreserved category.
According to the current policy, 85 per cent of seats in institutions not controlled by the Union government are reserved for local candidates under the competent authority quota, while 15% of seats are marked unreserved with a focus on maintaining reservations as much as possible in colleges established before June 2, 2014.
However, the Telangana government recently announced an amendment to reserve all 100% of seats for medical students of the State. This has become a cause of concern for parents of students from Andhra Pradesh as they will lose the opportunity to secure a seat in the colleges established in the neighbouring State after the bifurcation.
Following this, the AP Parents’ Association voiced their concerns to the Vice-Chancellor of Dr YSR University of Health Sciences, stating that the Telangana government’s decision will adversely affect students studying in the zones of Andhra University and Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) in Andhra Pradesh.
As of now, there are a total of 6,109 UG and 2,708 PG seats available in government and private medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh. These include the five government colleges that were recently approved for the academic year 2023-24, as well as Padmavathi Medical College under SVU limits.
Of the total, 2,450 UG seats and 821 PG seats were assigned to students in Andhra Pradesh following the bifurcation. If the Andhra Pradesh government decides to adopt a similar policy of Telangana, 15% of the competent authority quota seats will be allocated to students from the AU and SVU regions only.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr YSR University of Health Sciences vice-chancellor Prof Korukonda Babji confirmed that he has received a complaint from the AP Parents’ Association regarding Telangana government’s GO. He stated that they are currently analysing the facts and will update the government accordingly. The final decision rests with the government, he added.