New Meaning to Locals may Affect MBBS Aspirants in TG

Hyderabad: Scores of meritorious students from Telangana are set to lose admission into the MBBS due to a last-minute change in the definition of “locals” by the health department.

The department issued GO Ms No 33 on July 19 amending the definition of local students. The GO was kept under wraps till Monday when the Kaloji University of Health Sciences issued the notification for admission and quoted the order while defining the local category.

As per the government order, students appearing for Intermediate examinations in Telangana has been made mandatory to be considered under the local category. With this new rule, students who were born and brought up in Telangana but moved out of the state for the two-year intermediate course will become ineligible.

“Unfortunately, these students are like neither here nor there. They become ineligible for admission in any other state including neighbouring Andhra Pradesh because they studied for majority years in Telangana. They are ineligible in Telangana also because they did not appear for intermediate in the state,” said Kishore, a parent.

Significantly, students pursuing intermediate in Kota, Rajasthan, and other centres known for their coaching centres for NEET, come from different states but go back to their respective states and claim admission under local category, he added.

The Telangana government also amended the previous admission rules reserving the entire 85 per cent quota of seats for Telangana local students and left the remaining 15 per cent for all-India quota. It scrapped another 15 per cent open category in which meritorious students from Andhra and Rayalaseema could also compete which will be of great advantage to the local students.

“By scrapping 15 per cent merit quota, we can prevent Andhra and Rayalaseema students from taking away our seats. But by insisting for the intermediate clause we are harming the interests of our own students,” a senior health university official admitted.

The technical education department retained the 15 per cent open category seats facilitating admission of students from Andhra and Rayalaseema into engineering courses in Telangana colleges.

“We have earlier removed the 15 per cent open category in colleges which were established post bifurcation. Now, with the amendment 85 per cent seats in colleges established prior to bifurcation will also be reserved for locals. But, making the clause of students appearing for intermediate examination in Telangana mandatory will render injustice to Telangana students only,” pointed out former health minister T. Harish Rao.

Crying foul over the last minute announcement, the parents argued that they would not have sent their children for intermediate outside Telangana had the government or the university announced at least two years ago.

“We would not be anticipating that the government would amend the rule in 2024 while sending our children outside in 2022,” said a parent.