Tamil Nadu to reserve 85% medical seats for state board students

Chennai: Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar has announced in the state assembly that NEET would be the criterion for medical /dental admissions and 85% of medical seats after giving away of 15% to the All India Quota would be the domain of state board students. Counselling for Medical seats will commence from July 17.

The remaining seats in the state quota would be allocated to students of other boards. Of the total 3,050 seats are available at 22 government medical colleges as well as seats from the Raja Muthiah Medical College, 456 will be allotted to the 15% all-India quota.

Of the remaining 2,594 seats, 2,203 will be available to State board students and the remaining 391 seats to students of other boards.

Mr. Vijaya Baskar further revealed that 4.2 lakh students had studied science with biology in the State Board stream this year, while there were 4,675 students from the CBSE stream. A total of 88,431 students appeared for NEET, reports TOI.

This he said indicated that not more than 4,675 CBSE students — or not more than 5% of students — would have written NEET, while 95% would have been from the State board.

It is for the Ist time this year, that the management quota seats will also be filled by the selection committee based on NEET scores."Admission to 1,650 seats in 10 deemed universities along with all-India quota seats will be done by the director general of health services," said Health Secretary, J Radhakrishnan.

The order regarding norms for filling of medical seats was issued on June 22.

Speaking about the pending legislative Assembly bills with the President's office seeking exemption from NEET, the Minister said, "In the present circumstances, the State government has taken into consideration the concerns of parents and students and has taken steps to ensure that the representation of students from Tamil Nadu is not reduced,"

Furthermore, though the state had conducted PG counselling for admission to deemed universities, the Centre has directed that MBBS/BDS counselling for deemed universities will be done by Director General Health Services (DGHS), with all-India quota, in accordance with the Supreme Court directives. All deemed universities are to contribute seats to all-India quota. Online counselling to be held between July 3 and 15.

Meanwhile, the CBSE students are voicing discontent over state board students being given preferential treatment with 85 % reservation saying that they have toiled equally hard and deserve a better bet.