Srinagar: Students appearing in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate Medical and Dental courses in J&K have appealed to the Government to relook at the seat distribution among various categories in J&K, stating that at present it was unfair towards the Open Merit candidates.
Aspirants for MBBS and BDS in the seven Government medical Colleges of J&K have appealed to the Government to revisit the number of seats that had been curtailed in the OM category.
While speaking to Greater Kashmir, a delegation of aspirants said, “Open merit is the largest section of the population, yet has the smallest seat share,” he said. The delegation said the recent seat matrix that had been issued was “murder of merit” as a majority of the seats were in various categories. “We respect the various categories and the steps to uplift these but it does not mean that poor people working hard in OM are deprived of their rights,” another aspirant said.
The registration process for NEET UG is set to begin this month as per National Testing Authority. The exams are usually held in the month of June. In J&K, 1100 MBBS seats are filled through this exam, in which thousands of candidates appear.
Earlier this year, the seats (for 2021 batch) were filled after a delay of over a year due to a pendency of a litigation in the Supreme Court. In J&K, there was redistribution of the seats among various categories, the move, as per the health and medical education department, to remove the disparities for the Economically Weaker Section.
The final Seat Matrix of J&K BOPEE, which carries out the counseling in the UT, had 423 seats in the OM category, less than the 466 that had been announced weeks earlier.
The aspirants have alleged that the seat distribution was invalid and unconstitutional as OM was left with only 42 percent of the seats, which was against the guaranteed 54 percent.
In the GMCs of Srinagar and Jammu, the OM seats had been reduced from 78 to 65, out of the total of 150. The seats had been allocated to the EWS category, which the Government said were “part of OM.”