No quota in PG medical courses this year: Govt

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14

Students belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and backwards classes will not get any reservation in admission to the postgraduate courses (MD/MS/PG Diploma and MDS) in medical colleges of Haryana this year.

The state government has rejected, at least for the coming academic session, a proposal by the Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) in this regard.

Sources said the government had decided that since not much time was left for the new academic session, the issue should be examined in detail and information in other states obtained before putting up the relevant file for orders the next academic year.

Sources said the government had taken this decision on the opinion given by Advocate-General Baldev Raj Mahajan, who stated that since there were limited seats in the PG courses and no reservation had been provided in the state since 1971, the issues involved required a detailed examination.

The decision was taken at a meeting held recently at the CM’s residence, which was attended, among others, by AG Baldev Raj Mahajan and Additional Chief Secretary (DMER) Dhanpat Singh.

The DMER had moved a proposal in November, 2016, for issuing a notification for providing reservation of seats for admission to the PG courses for the 2017-18 session.

In its proposal, the DMER quoted an order of the Supreme Court dated December 2, 2009, whereby the court though refused to issue mandamus against the government’s decision not to provide reservation in PG courses, it left it for the government to reconsider its decision in future years.

The DMER had said in its proposal that the reservation policy for admission to PG courses was being followed in Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, HP and the PGIMER, Chandigarh.