Punjab govt to take decision on scrapping of Govt quota at medical college

Faridkot: The decision to convert Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College (SGRD), Amritsar's 75 government quota seats into management quota seats by the state government will be taken on Tuesday.

The Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) run college has 150 seats with both the quotas sharing an equal half of seats. The minority/management quota seat costs Rs. 40 lakhs, while the government quota seats at the institute cost Rs. 10 lakh.

Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education, SK Sandhu, will take a call on the issue with Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, officials . BFUHS is the nodal agency for NEET counselling, and the SGRD.
Candidate's online registration for admission in medical and dental courses ends on Tuesday. 8000 applications have been received till now. The Counselling session is scheduled for July 17.

"The decision needs to be taken as early as possible so that students are clear on the status of the seats in the SGRD," a senior BFUHS official said.

If permission to scrap the government (general)quota seats is given to the SGRD, with no reservation or those who are not in the NRI quota will not be given admission at the institute.

Presently, 75 seats in the government quota had 12 NRI reservations. Of the remaining 63 seats , 25 are reserved for Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Handicapped.

Leaving the general category to contest for 38 of the 150 seats at the institute. These seats will be scrapped with the doing away of government quota seats,
The management quota also has a 12 seat NRI reservation.

BFUHS justifying the retaining of the government quota seats said, the SGRD has yet to acquire the status of a university and therefore government quota could not be abolished.

On July 1, the institute had sought BFUHS permission for scrapping of Government seats, This was while it had announced the conversion of its government quota MBBS seats into management quota.

"If the SGRD is allowed to scrap seats, those candidates who could have been admitted under the government quota on merit will be deprived of the same. A lower-ranked candidate will get in as he can afford the higher fee," a BFUHS official told HT.