Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Oct 15: There is no let-up in the protests by the medicos even after the assurances from the UT Administration as they continue to demand a complete rollback of the move of pooling the PG, MBBS seats to the All India Quota (AIQ).
Scores of doctors from GMC Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla as well as SKIMS appeared in the city centre and staged a protest against the authorities, seeking immediate roll back of the circular issued by the NBE regarding the pooling of the Medical seats under which 100 per cent of the seats at SKIMS will be pooled in the AIQ.
The doctors said that as per the circular, 70 percent of PG seats will be pooled in the AIQ as out of 500 seats, J&K is left with just 172 seats which indicates that it is a 70:30 ratio. It is a wrong notion that has been created that there is going to be a 50% pooling in the AIQ,” they added.
The doctors believed that the doctor-patient ratio which is already in shambles in J&K will take a further hit if J&K goes ahead with the pooling of the PG seats.
“J&K currently has a doctor-patient ratio as 1:3800, which should have been 1:1000 as per the norms, if the pooling is carried out, the same will deteriorate further,” said Idrees Ahmad, one of the doctors.
While taking a jibe at the Administration which stated that the students of J&K will be able to compete for over 5000 PG seats across the country, the doctors said that around 1.5 lakh students across the country will be competing for it which will make it further difficult for them.
“While all the seats at SKIMS are gone, we were earlier happy that the UG seats were increased, but we did not know that they will end up decreasing the PG seats which is something that is going to be disastrous for the healthcare system in J&K,” said Tehmeena, another doctor.
As per doctors, the pooling will affect the backward class students and that is why States like Tamil Nadu as well as Maharashtra have already opted out of the AIQ.
“They have passed the resolution that they will not be participating in the pooling and we also ask the J&K administration to follow the suit,” the doctors said.
Earlier, it is to be mentioned here that LG Manoj Sinha after meeting a students’ delegation told them that he will request the Centre to defer the move this year and at the same said that with the pooling of the seats they will be able to compete for 5000 seats across the country.
However, the doctors are not ready to accept that and are demanding the complete annulment of the circular issued in this regard.
Interestingly, at the same time, doctors said that the pooling of the seats will also increase the dropout rate as around 2000 students appear in the PG entrance exam each “and with there being only 172 seats, the majority of the students will end up being dropouts.”
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