Central pool for Andhra Pradesh students post split

Hyderabad: The ‘All India Quota’ (AIQ) or the ‘central pool’ available in institutes of higher learning across the country, which had been eluding students from Andhra Pradesh since 1973 due to Article 371(D), is all set to be back on offer after bifurcation of the state.

The Article lays down special provisions for giving equal opportunities in education and employment for people in all the three regions of the state and stipulates that no outside student can come to Andhra Pradesh to study and no student from here can go out and study under any quota.

With this, AP students could not secure 15 per cent of the seats available under AIQ in some of the top institutes of the country so far.

AP students could not appear for All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to fill 15 per cent of the seats under AIQ all these years in medical colleges located across the country.

Officials said Article 371(D) would cease to be in force once the state was divided to form two new states and advised students to apply for seats under AIQ for the coming academic year (2014-15) in June/July 2014, to be on the safer side, if bifurcation took place by then.

Under AIQ, each state has to contribute 15 per cent of seats to the Central pool. However, AP and Jammu and Kashmir are exceptions due to local and  non-local issues following Article 371(D) and they don’t contribute any seats to the Central pool.

If AIQ opens for AP students after bifurcation, it would help students aiming for medical seats, as they would be eligible to apply to all medical colleges in the country barring those in J&K.