Tamil Nadu cocks a snook at governor, issues GO for 7.5% medical quota for govt students

CHENNAI: With Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit showing reluctance to give his assent for the bill to provide 7.5% quota for government school students in medical courses, the state government took the executive route on Thursday and issued a GO to reserve seats from this year.

According to the government, more than 300 MBBS seats in government medical colleges and self-financing colleges will now be available for students from government schools.

The order will benefit those who have studied from Class VI to XII in state government schools and have cleared NEET for admission to undergraduate medical, dental, ayurveda, siddha, unani and homeopathy courses in state-run medical colleges and state-quota seats in self-financing colleges.

A bill to reserve 7.5% seats, passed by the state assembly on September 15, is pending with governor Banwarilal Purohit, who has sought legal opinion on the matter. In response to a representation from DMK president M K Stalin, the governor had said that he would need three to four weeks to take a decision on the matter.

The horizontal 7.5% quota shall be provided in each category of vertical reservation followed in TN within 69% reservation from 2020, the order said.

Government medical colleges to add 50 seats this year

Last year, the cut-off at government medical colleges in OC category was 520 marks and for BC it was 470 marks. The cut-off for BCM and MBC was 458 marks and SC category it was 360 marks. For SCA it was 301 and ST 267 marks.

This year, government medical colleges will add 50 seats. However, due to 7.5% reservation to government school students, the number of seats available for other students could be less compared to last year as around 200 seats will be reserved for them in government medical colleges.

There are 3,300 seats in 26 government medical colleges and 2,100 seats in 15 self-financing medical medical colleges. Also 1,800 seats available in nine deemed universities in the state.