Telangana Government Promises EWS Quota for Medical Admissions

Hyderabad: The state government has assured the Telangana High Court that it will implement the economically weaker section (EWS) quota in MBBS/BDS admissions for 2024-2025.

There is no clarity on how the government will implement the measure because it did not apply for additional seats, mandated by the rules, to accommodate the 10 per cent EWS quota. It would be against the law if the EWS quota is implemented within the existing seats.

The Supreme Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court have already given a ruling that the EWS quota should be implemented after creating additional seats.

The Medical Council of India too informed the courts in previous cases that the EWS can be extended after creating additional seats. As per rules, the respective state governments should first apply for a 25 per cent additional quota to facilitate a 10 per cent EWS quota.

The government informed the Telangana High Court of its decision to implement EWS quota during a recent hearing on the petition filed by Kamareddy BJP MLA K. Venkata Ramana Reddy seeking implementation of the same for this academic year.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe disposed of the petition after recording the assurance given by Advocate-General A. Sudarshan Reddy that the state shall implement EWS “as per the guidelines prescribed by the Medical Council of India.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel K. Buchi Babu drew the attention of the court to the inaction of the health varsity and state government to the representations seeking implementation of the EWS quota. “We asked the university to implement the EWS quota in all the colleges. Counselling is about to begin but there is no communication on the EWS quota,” he pointed out.

Deccan Chronicle made repeated attempts to reach out to KNRUHS registrar Dr S. Sandhya and Director of Medical Education Dr N. Vani on how the EWS quota would be implemented in the absence of additional seats. Though the issue concerns thousands of students who are suffering due to the inordinate delay in the commencement of counselling, the two officials chose to pass on the buck to each other.

While Dr Vani said that “admissions are in the purview of the university,” the registrar maintained that “whichever orders the government issues, will be implemented by the University.”