Jammu, June 22: Apni Party Youth Wing (APYW) vice-president Raqeeq Ahmed Khan Wednesday strongly opposed any move of the government to pool medical seats of Jammu and Kashmir in All India Quota under NEET demanding delay in the process.

In a statement, Raqeeq Ahmed Khan said that there is very strong resentment among the medical students of Jammu and Kashmir. Hence, the Govt must delay the pooling of PG seats from UT of J&K in All India Quota until PG seats are allotted to new Medical Colleges so that J&K could participate in All India Quota without affecting the overall seat balance.

 “The candidates of NEET PG 2022 from J&K are against the proposed idea of pooling 50% PG seats in All India Quota. It has been recommended that J&K would participate in the All India Quota for PG seats for 50% of its total seat capacity from 2022. At present, J&K has a very small pool of PG seats comprising a few hundred seats unlike those UTs/States of India which participate in All India Quota and have thousandsof medical PG seats,” he said.

 

He further said that “Under the guidelines for implementation of All India Quota, only 172 seats would be reserved for the domiciled aspirants of J&K rendering a loss of 350 seats out of the total 522 seats available at present implying that 70 percent of seats would be written off with a meager 30 percent seats earmarked for the destitute UT.”

He said that the undergraduate MBBS courses have been started at five newly constructed Government Medical Colleges i.e GMC Anantnag, GMC Baramulla, GMC Rajouri, GMC Doda and GMC Kathua but no PG seats have been allotted to these colleges yet.

“The increasing number of MBBS graduates from the UT, which has roughly grown by three times in recent years necessitates the availability of more PG seats to be made available to the UT exclusively for proportionate accommodation. The allotment of PG seats to these Medical Colleges is expected to be expedited soon,” he said highlighting concerns of the medical students.

He said that therefore, the pooling PG seats in All India Quota at this juncture would not be of significant benefit to the aspiring PG candidates of J&K as it would drastically reduce the number of UT seats which is already meager.

He further said that “Unlike other states of India, there are no bondage rules in existence for medical postgraduate programmes in the UT of J&K. As a result, PG scholars from other states would not contribute to the overall number of specialists in the State. Whereas for doctors belonging to J&K, pursuing PG programmes in different state colleges of India would have to be substantiated by subscribing to a working bond of 4-6 years.”