Amidst the inclusion of quotas for Maratha community under the Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) Act to accommodate more students in undergraduate medical colleges in Maharashtra, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has announced the addition of supernumerary seats in government medical colleges across the country. In Maharashtra, 970 seats have been added in the GMCs.
Earlier, the state Education Minister announced the addition of more than 2000 seats in the medical colleges in Maharashtra by 2020 including those under the SEBC category.
The new seats would be added under special circumstances if the number of candidates is more as compared to available seats. That’s why the name - Supernumerary seats. The allotment of seats under various quotas would be decided after taking into consideration the supernumerary seats.
The Board of Governor of the Medical Council of India had earlier proposed the addition of MBBS seats under the economically weaker sections (EWS) quota for the academic year 2019-20.
“After carefully considering the matter, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare accepted the proposal of BoG-MCI and hereby directs the counselling authorities of states/UTs/All India quota for filling up the MBBS seats under the EWS quota for the 2019-20 academic year,” states the circular uploaded on the Government of India website, late on Friday. Notably, MCI had earlier accepted proposals of new colleges.
The addition of new seats has paved relief to the parents and students who were tensed regarding the admissions in the open category section for postgraduate medical studies after 16% seats were reserved for Maratha community under the SEBC Act “While the inclusion of a new quota does put more pressure on open category candidates, adding supernumerary seats will hopefully ease the pressure and the competition now,” said Madhvi Pandya, a parent to Hindustan Times.
Parents now hope the government stand by their decision and judiciously implement it for the benefits of the students.
