Bifurcated Andhra in the national pool of medical seats

VIJAYAWADA: The bifurcated regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana having officially joined the national pool for medical seats will now enable students to compete for medical seats across the country. The two regions will lose 15% of the local seats in MBBS and 50% seats in postgraduate courses due to the present decision.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states were not included in the national pool, despite being part of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions, because of Article 371-D.

The article was continued even after bifurcation of the state into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. With NEET becoming operative it would mean the two regions losing the opportunity to compete for the 15 percent non-local quota across all states.

Article 371 (D) forms a part of the Constitution of India. It safeguards the rights of local people in employment and education and was created after agitation in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It was incorporated as the 32nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1974.

The only other state in the country that has this kind of special provision is Jammu and Kashmir.

The New Indian Express reports that while there are 27,710 MBBS seats available across the nation, in AP the number is 1,900. By joining the national pool, the State will lose 15 per cent of seats, but will have scope for getting 16 times extra seats, he said.

Thus, by losing 285 (15%) MBBS seats to the pool, students from the State will get the chance to compete for 4,482 seats available across the country.Similarly, out of the 13,872 postgraduate seats available across the nation, 660 are from the State. “Even if we lose 330 (50%) seats to the national pool, our students will get the opportunity to compete for 7,236 seats in the national pool,” he said.

Keeping this loss in mind both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana decided to submit to the Union government that they were willing to join the national pool along with other states. This consent by the regions and its acceptance by the union government has enabled students of both the regions to compete for medical seats across the country, from the present academic session.

Entering the national pool has led to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana losing MBBS seats to the non-local students, however, the students of the region will be able to compete for MBBS seats across the countrya.

State Health Minister, Kamineni Srinivas speaking to TOI in New Delhi, on Tuesday, said that that the decision would be beneficial for students of the bifurcated regions as more number of seats will be available, across the country, to them. As AP students are meritorious, they are expected to gain better ranks in NEET, he stated. The state gets more seats by joining the national pool, he added.

This he felt would benefit postgraduate students, as well, as they would be able to compete for many super speciality courses across the country, which till now had been unavailable to the students of the state.

In an earlier story done by Medical Dialogues team, it was reported that the Telangana Government’s decision to contribute to the national pool by giving up Article 371(D)’s accompanied special rights had opened doors to a wider seat pool. A consenting stamp to it by Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, the state Medical Education Department, and the Medical and Health Minister, C Laxma Reddy had also been granted.

Read also: Telangana finally enters the National pool of Medical Seats