The medical aspirants in Maharashtra are perplexed by the state’s seat matrix for MBBS and BDS admission, which they found to be riddled with faulty distribution of seats across reservation categories.
Among many apparent errors, the number of seats earmarked under the newly introduced socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) reservation for Maratha students exceeds the stipulated 10% quota. SEBC quota has even been applied to two minority-run institutes, which are exempted from social reservations. In contrast, the proportion of private college seats allotted to other categories, including scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and other backward class (OBC), is significantly lower than their quotas.
With the choice-filling process for the first round of admissions set to end on Thursday, a group of parents wrote a letter to the state government and the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) seeking corrections and re-publishing of the seat matrix. While the authorities didn’t provide any clarification, the parents got some relief after the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell extended the deadline to submit the choices till Friday morning.
This is not the first time that the state’s calculation of medical seats has faced scrutiny. When the state had first introduced reservations for Marathas in 2019 in the form of a 16% SEBC quota, the number of reserved seats for postgraduation (PG) medical and dental seats at private colleges was computed by considering the overall intake, including 35% and 15% seats aside for institute and Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quotas respectively. This meant that as many as 32%, not 16%, of the available spots being earmarked for Marathas, with fewer seats left for the general category. The decision was challenged in the Bombay High Court (HC), which had put the dental admission process on hold.
The similar mistake appears to have been made this time as well. The seat matrix indicates that the 10% SEBC quota has been calculated after considering all the seats at private medical and dental colleges, including 15% seats meant for institute quota. Such seat distribution discounts the fact that there is no reservation on the institute quota seas, with all the reserved seats being drawn from the remaining 85% spots. This effectively resulted in SEBC quota getting inflated to 12%, thereby shrinking the pie for general category students.
The government officials failed to provide any explanation for the seeming errors. An official from the state medical education department admitted that the reservations should be calculated with 85% non institute quota seats as denominator, not the overall intake. He also said that there shouldn't be any reservation at minority institutes.
When FPJ contacted Ajay Chandanwale, DMER director, he merely said, "There's no reservation at minority colleges."
