Oppn claims injustice to Marathwada students in medical admissions

Nagpur: The Maharashtra Legislative Council today witnessed an uproar after the Opposition claimed that the students from Vidarbha and Marathwada regions are failing to secure admissions in the government medical colleges in other parts of the state due to the 70:30 regional formula.

The issue was raised by Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP), MLCs Amarsingh Pandit, Satish Chavan and Sunil Tatkare.

Pandit claimed that meritorious students from the two regions are not able to secure seats in medical colleges due to the regional formula.

As per a Maharashtra government resolution (GR), 70 per cent students will get admissions in colleges within the same district of their residence, leaving 30 per cent seats for outsiders.

Munde highlighted less numbers of state-run medical colleges in the Vidarbha and the Marathwada compared to rest of Maharashtra.

He said Vidarbha (east Maharashtra) has nine medical colleges while Marathwada six, compared to 25 colleges in rest of the state.

In his reply, Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan indirectly blamed the previous governments for the backlog.

"No efforts were made to start government medical colleges in Marathwada or anywhere else in Maharashtra in the last 15-20 years (before BJP came to power). However, new medical colleges were opened in Gondiya and other places in the last three years," he said.

However, Opposition MLCs interrupted Mahajan with Munde alleging that the issue of injustice meted out to the two regions has always been suppressed in the legislature by the ruling party (BJP).

Amid din, deputy Chairman of Council Manikrao Thakre said he was reserving the discussion which was initiated under Rule 97.

Irked by this, the minister and some MLCs of the BJP stormed into the Well of the Council, forcing Thakre to adjourn the proceedings for 10 minutes.

Under Rule 97, matters of public importance are raised by MLCs for a short duration discussion.

After the Council reassembled, Munde demanded apology from Mahajan for entering the Well.

Mahajan informed the Council that the government was planning to sanction a medical college at Osmanabad in Marathwada region.

He said a meeting of the MLCs concerned with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will be held within a month to address their grievances.