PUNE: A silent candle march will be organised by the students of BJ General Medical College on Wednesday against the exceeding reservation in medical education. Other government medical college students from the State are also organising similar protests against the 78 per cent reservation in the medical education in Maharashtra.
Speaking to Sakal Times, a student from BJGMC said that out of the 972 seats in government colleges, only a small number of 233 are available in the open category.
“This is a peaceful protest against the unjust reservations. We are organising the candle march against the reservation reaching 78 per cent in Maharashtra. The difference in the ratio for popular PG specialities like dermatology, general medicine and general surgery is further shocking. Similarly, in dentistry for orthodontist and dentofacial orthopaedics, there are no open seats left. This scenario extends to all educational fields,” said the student.
He said that this murder of merit is extremely unjust for the students, who have been working so hard and for so long.
“Due to this excessive reservation, meritorious students haven’t gotten their due. Even after multiple attempts, the government isn’t hearing our voices,” the student added.
He said the students are not doing this because elections are up.
“We are doing this because the counselling for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test postgraduate (NEET PG) has started. It is now that we get the opportunity to raise this issue. However, we do expect any change. It was said that the reservations will be added after increasing the number of seats but the State government has hastily run the procedure,” said the student.
Another student from BJGMC, on condition of anonymity, said students expect that there should be equal opportunity for all.
“Injustice is being meted out to all meritorious open category students, for which we have raised our voice. Sadly, the situation is the same for engineering and other fields too. There the overall seats are more, so there is no immediate problem. But this problem is not restricted to medical education only.”
