Maharashtra Govt faces backlash over 10 percent EWS quota in Private Medical Colleges
MBBS Admissions in Maharashtra
Mumbai: The decision of the Maharashtra Government to implement a 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota in the private medical colleges across the State has been opposed by medical aspirants and their parents.
Writing emails to the Maharashtra Medical Education Minister, Hasan Mushrif, MBBS aspirants and their parents have requested him to revoke the decision, as they pointed out that Supreme Court rulings mention that seats can be reserved for the EWS category without affecting the seats of any other category.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell of Maharashtra recently announced the commencement of admissions for the undergraduate (UG) medical courses in the State.
Accordingly, the CET Cell also released the Information Brochure for NEET UG 2025 admissions and it indicated the implementation of a 10 per cent EWS reservation in private medical colleges.
The annexure under constitutional reservation mentioned the EWS reservation in private medical colleges. Under the subjead "EWS Reservation", the brochure states, "In Government / Government Aided / Corporation / Private Unaided Institutions (excluding Minority Institutions), 10% seats of the available seats under State Quota will be reserved for EWS candidates."
Also Read: Maha CET Cell begins NEET Counselling 2025, Apply NOW
However, since the EWS quota is being implemented without increasing the intake capacity to accommodate this reservation, the MBBS aspirants and their parents are worried that this new reservation policy will drastically reduce the number of open seats.
Therefore, now highlighting the situation, MBBS aspirants and their parents have written to Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif, requesting him to revoke the decision.
As per the latest media report by the Indian Express, the letters sent by the parents and the students mentioned, "…there was a commitment by (the) Central Government to increase seats by 25 per cent to implement this 10 per cent EWS quota. So how is your Government not complying with the Central rule and Supreme Court verdict?"
"Students have to burn midnight oil to crack these entrance exams and sometimes have to repeat multiple times to reach that score of a suitable seat. This decision of yours puts the middle-class general category students at a disadvantage, who are unable to obtain (an) EWS certificate due to various reasons," the letters further said.
Aspirants and parents have claimed that due to the reduction in the number of merit-based seats after the implementation of EWS quota, there will be a steep increase in the cut-off scores.
They will also send emails, with the subject line – 'Request to Revoke 10 per cent EWS in Private Medical Colleges of Maharashtra'- to the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and both Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, among others.
