A month after the Telangana government increased medical seats across the state, the Telangana state government has now issued orders providing 10 percent seat reservation to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) for MBBS and BDS courses starting this academic year. In order to implement the EWS quota, the Board of MCI Governors has approved an additional 215 additional MBBS seats in various government medical colleges in the State from this academic year.
In April 2019 the MCI Board of Governors had written letters to States directing them to implement the 10 percent EWS quota for medical undergraduate courses starting this year, TT reports. Now the authorities are expecting additional seats to be allotted to the private medical colleges in the State, which if granted, will increase the overall number of medical seats to 300 from this academic year. It may be noted that according to present policy, 50 percent of undergraduate and postgraduate seats in private unaided medical colleges are reserved to the conveyor quota or the State government.
However, sources said that the state may introduce its own modifications like reducing the creamy layer upper limit of Rs 8 lakh per annum income. The government is contemplating that not only poor from EWS but also the SC/ST and OBC sections would be made eligible to avail of this quota.
Telangana has over 50 percent SC/ST population, besides this, the state is also pushing for a 12 percent reservations for Muslims that constitute 14 percent of the state’s 3.63 crore population. Besides, when the 10 percent reservation for EWS is implemented, Telangana is expected to become the state with the highest reservation for jobs and in the educational institutions in the country.
