UP- Controversy brews over Caste Reservations in Private Medical Colleges

Uttar Pradesh: Controversy seems to have brewed over the caste reservations in private medical and dental colleges in the state, after media reports stating that the new BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath has abolished all quota based reservations in the private medical education sector of the state

“Yogi Adityanath government has just made an announcement to end quota based reservations in private medical and dental colleges of up,“ stated the India Today article on Wednesday, which first reported the news. The news indeed went viral over social media, within a few hours, being shared and reshared over platforms of facebook, whatsapp and twitter, also being reported by other dailies.

It was reported that  the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government had made an announcement saying caste-based reservations in private medical and dental colleges of Uttar Pradesh will cease to exist. It went onto add that  an order has been passed to do away with quota for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other Backward Classes (OBC).

However, soon after this information went viral over facebook and twitter, another news report in the TOI  had the state Medical Education Department countering  the trending information that Yogi Adityanath had abolished the caste based reservations in private medical and dental colleges in UP.

"It is wrong to say that rules of reservation have been scrapped from the private medical and dental colleges. Reservation was never a part of the admission process in private sector medical and dental colleges, as per the prevalent policy made in 2006. There has been no change in any policy whatsoever," reiterated, Director General ,Medical Education, Dr VN Tripathi to TOI.

Clarifying the stand, he said efforts were onto regulate the functioning in private medical and dental colleges, following orders from the Supreme Court of India.

"Private medical and dental colleges have been brought under the umbrella of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test for the first time. Seats in these colleges for post graduate courses are being filled through the NEET score," Dr Tripathi stated.

Speaking of the two first time initiatives that are to be associated with the private medical and dental colleges, the Director General added” "Admission in these colleges has been moderated by the medical education department and an online counselling process for allotment of seats is underway. The fees in these colleges has been fixed by the government for the first time."

In another news report, the Indian Express   has further reported to clarify that as per an order issued on March 10, the previous state government had released an admission policy on the basis of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) merit list-2017 for PG courses. The report added that Clause 7 of the order states that in the private medical and dental colleges there would not be any provision of reservation for students belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories in the admission process. It is this order which is going to be implemented by the current state government.