In-service Reservation set at 50 percent for PG Medical, Super-specialty courses in Tamil Nadu

Through a couple of Government Orders (GOs), the government has reserved at least 50 percent of PG Medical seats for in-service government doctors, while in the other circular, it has reserved the entire 50 percent state quota in super specialty courses for in-service candidates. The new admission policy for MD/MS and MDS courses will come into force in 2021, and for the PG super-specialty (DM/MCh) courses, it will come into effect in 2020.

Economic Times reports that on Monday when the central government asked the court to defer the hearings till the dismissal of a case in the supreme court, the senior counsel for the serving doctors stated that the case which is being considered in the apex court has no connection with the current circumstances and hence the government's implementation of the quota should not be delayed. Thereafter, the court refused to defer the hearing and disposed of the plea.

Issuing the new circular, the state authorities allocated 50 percent of postgraduate super-specialty seats in government medical colleges to in-service government doctors from the academic year 2020-2021.

The order stated that from the year 1993 to 2016 the selection of the students in super-specialty courses was done on the basis of marks obtained in the entrance examination conducted by the government of Tamil Nadu and the marks for total service after completion CRRI. The maximum marks for the entrance examination were 90 and marks awarded for each year after completion of CRRI were a maximum of 10 marks.

As per the circular on DM/Mch, "this system will be changed as 50% of the seats were available for the open quota to which both services and non-service candidates were eligible for selection on the basis of merit. 50% of the seats in each of the specialties were allocated exclusively to service candidates. In the success of the policy framed by the state of Tamil Nadu which has been in place for several years, 50% of the state quota seats in each super specialty of the postgraduate courses are allocated to doctors in government service. On selection, the government service doctors are required to serve the government till superannuation while non-service doctors are required to serve the government for a period of no less than two years."

Hence, for the super specialty courses, all the seats for the state quota will be reserved for government doctors.

Meanwhile, in another circular, the state government stated, "the Director of Medical Education has stated that until the year 2016-17 50% of the seats in the postgraduate degree courses and postgraduate diploma courses were surrendered to All India Quota for which and all India examination was conducted by the national board of examination while the remaining 50% seats were allotted to State quota for which state level entrance examination was conducted by additional director of Medical education and secretary selection committee and counseling for the State quota was done based on the merit list and by following the rules of reservation." It further added that from now on 50% of seats for postgraduate degrees diploma courses in Tamil Nadu within the state quota (25% of the total seats) will be reserved for in-service candidates.

Director of Medical Education Dr. R Narayana Babu told The Economic Times that "Last year, we had just 10 students from government service in super-specialty courses. We have more than two dozen medical colleges and we are planning to add 11 more. We need more super-specialists who can offer high-end surgeries free of cost to our patients."