Hyderabad: The Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) has decided to proceed with the Supreme Court order of allowing only the original petitioners to participate in the counselling process as regards the local/domicile issue vis-a-vis MBBS and BDS admissions.
Varsity Vice Chancellor Karunakar Reddy told Deccan Chronicle that until directed otherwise, the university will only allow the original 133 petitioners to apply for counselling.
The affected students, who could not move the High Court earlier, recently filed a petition stressing that the decision should be the same for all affected candidates
While the matter is still in the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) had in the last hearing orally suggested the state government apply the ‘local’ rule (which mandates that the candidates must have studied in the state in the last four years) from the next batch. The government has not submitted its response.
“I have not been able to focus on anything else right now. I have lost the opportunity of applying in other states under the all India quota because we decided to wait for the state counselling. The SC and the government should have taken our concerns also into consideration. The only option now is to wait for another year before I can also apply for other courses,” said Pranav Gade, a student affected by the issue.
As regards the NRI quota seats in private non-aided medical colleges, the VC clarified that there will not be any curbs on the quota.
With the apex court turning down Punjab government’s notification extending the NRI quota seats and observing that NRI quota itself allows for backdoor entry of undeserving candidates, the VC replied that unlike other states, Telangana does not have a NRI quota in government colleges, while in private colleges, 50 per cent of such earmarked seats are not filled.
“There is no demand for these seats. The vacant ones are filled by converting them into management quota seats, quite ironically with the same fee structure,” he said, adding that there are 525 seats under NRI quota in the state.
