Maharashtra Medical Education Minister has announced the repealing of the 70:30 regional quota in admission to state medical colleges in favour of a ‘One Maharashtra, One Merit’ principle.
The medical fraternity, including student organisations, welcomed the move as the successful conclusion of a long battle for seats in colleges.
It was a longstanding policy of regional reservation of seats in medical colleges. For the purposes of this quota in admissions, the state was divided into three regions: Marathwada, Vidarbha, and Rest of Maharashtra (RoM).
As per the 70:30 policy formula, 70% of seats were reserved for locals (from that region), and 30% were available to candidates belonging to other parts of the state.
The number of colleges – and the number of seats – available in the three regions are different.
Marathwada has fewer colleges and fewer seats, which puts students from this region at a disadvantage compared to students availing the 70% quota elsewhere.
This would often result in complaints about even meritorious students failing to get admission – also because their options outside their region were restricted to just 30% of seats.
As per the amendments to the 2016 Act published by the state government, all seats shall be made available to all candidates from the state, and shall be filled on the basis of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) merit list.
As earlier, 25% seats in unaided private professional educational Institutions shall be allotted to candidates from the constitutional reservation category.
Thirty percent of seats at the disposal of the competent authority shall be reserved for women in all courses.
The same provisions will apply to ayurveda, unani, homeopathy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, prosthetics and orthotics, and B.Sc Nursing courses.
Among other things, political considerations have over the decades determined the pace and focus of development, including the setting up of medical colleges in the state.
The reservation was seen as a more fair system. It also allowed students from various parts of the state to mingle with and get to know each other.
The all-India NEET was introduced in 2017, after which this provision should have been removed. NEET was introduced to ensure merit-based admissions, which could not have co-existed with region-based reservations.
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