Plea seeks 5 percent PwD Quota at GMERS Medical Colleges, HC issues notice to state

According to a recent report by Mirror, on Thursday, 14^th October 2021, the Gujarat High Court issued a notice to the state government and other concerned bodies with regard to a petition filed by a young medical aspirant. The petition requested a 5% reservation quota for Persons with Disability in self-financed medical colleges run by the Gujarat Medical Education & Research Society (GMERS). The plea also sought relief that PwD be admitted to the medical college nearest to their residence.

The aspirant, through her petition, pointed out that the PwD only had the option of seeking an admission in the 6 government medical colleges in Gujarat. The eight colleges under GMERS were being being treated as self-financed colleges though they operated using government funds. The government grants are shown as loans by these colleges.

The plea went on to point out that the eight GMERS colleges, as also the NHL (Ahmedabad), LG (Ahmedabad) and SMIMER (Surat) that are now run by government trusts, and 15 other self-financed colleges were denying PwD the benefit of 5% reservation which is unfair, as these institutes were set up to ensure that Gujarat-based students don't have to resort to going away from their homes to seek a medical education, reports Mirror