Telangana doctors demand PG MD/MS seats at NIMS for in-service docs

Explaining the situation, State President of TPHDA, Dr. Kathi Janardhan told Medical Dialogues, " As in-service doctors are deprived of the chance to pursue PG courses of their choice in the first round of the counseling, we demand that in-service doctors should either be admitted during the second round of counseling or instead of conversion of seats right after two rounds of counseling, the authorities should hold another round of counseling including in-service doctor quota and after that, they should convert the seats for non-service students."

In the letter, the association pointed out that the State government issued GO 155 on November 18, 2021, with the provision of 20 percent clinical and 30 percent pre and para clinical PG (MD/MS/Diploma) seats to in-service doctors only in government medical colleges. Then TPHDA approached the State Health Minister and concerned officials on November 19 and requested that GO 155 should include 20 percent clinical and 30 percent pre and para clinical PG (MD/MS/Diploma) seats to in-service doctors in both government and private medical colleges. Authorities assured that seats would be preserved for in-service doctors in private medical colleges as well.

" Despite the GO, NIMS PG MD/MS seats are not allocated to in-service doctors though the institute comes under Telangana Private Medical Colleges. In-service doctors lost 2 to 3 MD/MS seats in the round 1 counseling. During the first phase of counseling, the colleges are supposed to admit students under the open category and then the state category after which the seats are converted. We requested the Secretary to allocate NIMS PG MD/MS seats to in-service doctors in round 2 counseling from the year 2021 to 2022 or to conduct another round of counseling before converting the seats", Dr. Kathi added.

He cited the example of the Andhra Pradesh government that allocated Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) PG MD/MS seats to in-service doctors as per the in-service quota GO. However, the GO 155 was not maintained while conducting the first round of counseling in NIMS. Dr. Kathi said, SVIMS is an autonomous institute of Andhra Pradesh, likewise, NIMS is an autonomous institute in Telangana. Hence, it should have also maintained admission of medicos under the in-service quota.