Srinagar: The government Friday said that the allotment of seats for reserved candidates who had qualified NEET-2021 undergraduate exams had been done as per the law.
The statement comes amid student protests against the J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) for making changes in the seat matrix wherein some seats from the Open Merit category had been withdrawn and added to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Additional Chief Secretary Health and Medical Education (H&ME) Department Vivek Bhardwaj who also holds the charge of BOPEE Chairman said that they had distributed the seats as per the law.
“We are confident that the reserved category seats have been distributed as per the law. We have gone as per the constitution in the distribution of reserved category seats,” he said.
The students from the Open Merit category had complained that the changes made in the seat matrix had left their careers in jeopardy.
The students opposed the BOPEE’s decision of making changes in the seat matrix and said that the calculations made by BOPEE were “grossly incorrect”.
“Suppose GMC Srinagar has 180 seats. Of these only 36 percent are for Open Merit and not 54 percent as shown in the revised matrix issued by the BOPEE,” an aggrieved candidate said.
The candidate said that overall there were only 42 percent seats for Open Merit, not 54 percent as shown in the matrix.
“It is a gross violation of SC ruling of not having more than 50 percent seats for the open merit,” he said.
The aggrieved candidates said that of the 180 seats each available in Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar and GMC Jammu, the number of seats in the Open Merit category comes to only about 36 percent.
“The problem is that BOPEE has given all reservations that are available at an all-India level without taking into account that we already have many additional reservations here in J&K like Residents of Backward Area (RBA), Line of Actual Control (LAC), and even 50 percent reservation for girls which is not given anywhere else,” the candidates said.
They urged Lieutenant Governor ManojSinha for his intervention to safeguard the future of distressed students who had qualified NEET-2021 in the Open Merit category.
Meanwhile, Bhardwaj said that they were following proper rules in allotting seats to the reserved categories.
“The candidates who are aggrieved and not happy can approach the court. If they win their case, then we are ready to accept that the process was messed up,” he said.
Bhardwaj said that BOPEE cannot convince every candidate.
“We work as per the law,” he said.
A group of candidates who fall in the EWS category complained to Greater Kashmir that they were not allowed to register for the counseling as BOPEE had already closed the registration link.
“We did not apply under the EWS category earlier because only five percent seats were allotted to the EWS category as per the previous seat matrix. Now the seats have been increased and we are eligible,” an aggrieved candidate said.
Referring to the demand of left-out EWS category candidates, Additional Chief Secretary VivekBhardwaj said that their concern was to follow rules.
“We are not concerned about who is left out or who got in. We have distributed the seats as per the law,” he said.