Hyderabad: After being cleared by the state medical education department and approved by medical and health minister C Laxma Reddy, the proposal to include Telangana government medical colleges in the national pool has been cleared by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
The proposal will now be sent to the Centre expressing willingness to join the national pool from the ensuing academic year 2018-19. The Telangana government will now have to give 15 per cent of MBBS seats and 50 per cent of post-graduate medical seats to the national pool. In return, students from the state will be eligible to compete for national pool seats in all other states. At present, there are 1,100 MBBS seats and 570 PG medical seats in government colleges in Telangana.
The government has to offer 165 MBBS seats and 285 PG medical seats under the national pool. This will enable TS students to compete for 4,442 MBBS seats and 6,665 PG medical seats in all states across the country. The AP government too recently expressed its willingness to join the national pool. It will have to offer 285 MBBS seats and 415 PG seats to the national pool.
Undivided Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir were exempted from the national pool due to the implementation of Article 371(D) since 1975 owing to special political conditions in these states to ensure seats only for locals. Even after the bifurcation of AP, the rule continues to exist, but now the AP and TS governments want this to change as the state has been bifurcated.
Health minister C Laxma Reddy said, "We held talks with our AP counterparts on this issue. They too favoured national pool. Since Article 371(D) is in force in both the states, we need to send a joint proposal to the Centre seeking relaxation and requesting to include both the states in the national pool. We will soon send a joint letter to the Centre."
