Srinagar, June 10, KDC: J&K students Association here on Friday urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to delay the pooling of PG seats from JK UT in All India Quota (AIQ) until PG seats are allotted to new Medical Colleges. The demand has come in backdrop of the proposed idea of pooling 50% PG seats in AlQ, whereby it has been recommended that JKUT would participate in the AlQ for PG seats pooling a proposed 50% of its total seat capacity from 2022 onwards.
In a Statement to KDC Joint secretary of the Association Faizan Peer said, “The UT currently has a very small pool of PG seats comprising a few hundred seats unlike those UTs/States of India which participate in AlQ and have thousands of medical PG seats.
Under the guidelines for implementation of All India Quota wherein 50 percent seats from GMCs and 100 percent seats from SKIMS would be filled through the same, only 172 seats would be reserved for the domicile aspirants of JK rendering a loss of 350 seats out of the total 522 seats available at present implying that 70 percent of seats would be written off with a meagre 30 percent seats earmarked for the destitute UT”.
“Undergraduate MBBS courses have been started at five newly constructed Government Medical Colleges viz, GMC Anantnag, GMC Baramulla, GMC Rajouri, GMC Doda and GMC Kathua but no PG seats have been allotted to these colleges yet. The increasing number of MBBS graduates from the UT, which has roughly grown by three times in recent years necessitates the availability of more PG seats to be made available to the UT exclusively for proportionate accommodation. The allotment of PG seats to these Medical Colleges is expected to be expedited soon”, he added.
Additional Spokesperson of the Association Ummar Jamal said, “Pooling PG seats in All India Quota at this juncture of time would drastically reduce the number of UT seats, which is already meagre. Unlike other states of India, there are no bondage rules in existence for medical postgraduate programmes in the Union territory of J&K. As a result, PG scholars from other states would not contribute to the overall number of specialists in the state. Whereas for doctors belonging to J&K, pursuing PG programmes in different state colleges of India would have to be substantiated by subscribing to a working bond of 4-6 years. This would consequently reduce the doctor-patient ratio in the region drastically which is already very grim”.
The Association earnestly requested Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to consider the demand of delaying the pooling of PG seats from UT of J&K in All India Quota until PG seats are allotted to new Medical Colleges so that J&K could participate in All India Quota without affecting the overall seat balance. (KDC)

