No quota in PG medical seats: SC

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday vacated its interim order providing ten per cent reservation to SC and STs in the all-India postgraduate medical entrance examination. But this applies only to this academic year.

A bench headed by Justice K G Balakrishnan gave the order after the Centre gave an undertaking that from next year it will make a provision for granting reservation to SC/ST candidates in the quota.

It was the Central government which pleaded that the quota be kept in abeyance till next year.

The government's lawyer pointed out that the admission process for this year was almost complete. At this stage, it would be impossible to implement the SC,ST reservation. The students at the Maulana Azad Medical College, of course, were not complaining.

"We are quite happy with the decision. I have my counseling tomorrow. Had the court's decision gone against us, I would have definitely lost my seat," says a medical student.

Another student points out that with the number of seats becoming less and less, it is going to be very difficult for them to get into medical post-graduation courses.

The students' agitation has acquired another dimension over the past few weeks with HRD Minister, Arjun Singh proposing 27 per cent reservation for OBCs.

The students will obviously keep a close watch on political developments and have already begun threatening a protest next year if the reservation is back.

(With Ashok Bagriya)

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