HYDERABAD: Former health minister T Harish Rao on Wednesday said that the GO 33 issued recently by the Medical and Health department might make Telangana students non-locals in their own state.
Speaking to the media at Telangana Bhavan, the former minister demanded that the state government frame fresh rules for admissions to professional colleges by amending the GO 33 to protect the interests of Telangana students.
“We urge the government to act immediately. We are ready to provide suggestions if an all-party meeting is convened,” Harish Rao said.
Disputing Health Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha’s clarification on the GO, Harish said that even students from Telangana who went to other states for studies might become non-locals if they were to take up any fresh course in the state thereafter.
The AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, has laid down that 85 percent of seats in professional institutions in the three regions of the undivided state — Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema — should be reserved for locals of the region and the remaining 15 percent should remain open to all. The arrangement was to continue for 10 years. This arrangement, he noted, came to an end on June 2, 2024.
Telangana free to frame own rules on admission to all institutes, claims Harish
“The Telangana state is free to frame its own rules in respect of admission to all the institutions. But the government continued the same arrangement,” Harish Rao alleged.
The BRS leader said: “MBBS seats have increased from 2,850 to 9,000 under the BRS rule. The 85 percent reservation to locals was implemented in colleges that existed before the formation of Telangana. In the newly established colleges, 100 percent of the seats were allocated to Telangana students, which resulted in an additional 520 seats for our students,” Harish Rao clarified. He said that the BRS government also brought a GO to ensure that seats in the B category in private medical colleges were given to local students, resulting in 1,071 seats in 24 colleges for Telangana students.
Harish Rao said: “We undertook these measures with an intention to see that our students would benefit. But it is not happening though old provisions allowed by the bifurcation Act expired on June 2, 2024. Now, we must develop a comprehensive new policy to ensure local status for admissions,” Harish said.
“The new GO stated that students would be considered local if they have studied four years in one region prior to the qualifying examination, which is an intermediate course for admission to medical colleges.”
The GO only omitted the relaxation that the old GO gave for those who did not have four years of education in one region. The old GO had said that for such students to become “local”, they should have studied for at least seven years in the combined state and such students would become local to the region where they had studied for the major portion of seven-year period — which is four years. According to the new GO, Telangana students who study intermediate for two years in one state or go for long-term coaching would become non-local. He feared that the Telangana students, who are pursuing MBBS in other states and countries would be considered non-locals for PG seats with the implementation of GO 33, since qualifying examinations would become MBBS which they may have done elsewhere for more than four years.
He said that like in Tamil Nadu, rules should be framed so that to secure an MBBS seat, one must have studied from sixth to 10th grade, with parents having permanent residence. Karnataka and Kerala have their own regulations, Harish Rao said and sought similar rules for Telangana.