Med students withdraw stir over Maratha quota

Mumbai: The protest by postgraduate medical has finally been withdrawn on Tuesday. The move came after the Maharashtra governor signed an ordinance to provide a quota to the Maratha community members under the Socially and Economica-lly Backward Class (SE-BC) category.

Expressing happiness over the move, the protesting students in a statement said they were satisfied with the measures initiated by the state government and, therefore, decided to withdraw their agitation.

Since the last two we-eks, around 250 students were sitting on a protest at the Azad Maidan after the Bombay high court earlier this month ruled that the 16 per cent quota offered to Marathas would not be applicable on admissions to postgraduate (PG) medical courses this year. Follo-wing the judgment, the apex court also upheld the HC ruling. Howe-ver, it led to the cancellation of admissions granted to 253 students after which the state government took the ordinance route.

On the government’s recommendation, governor C. Vidyasagar Rao signed the ordinance on Monday to protect the admissions of students in the PG courses. Earlier on November 30, 2018, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education under the SEBC category. The ordinance is aimed to further explain the state government’s intent to provide quota to the Maratha community.

The state government earlier clarified that the quota would be implemented from the very time the prospectus for the courses were issued in February this year. The state has also sought more medical and dental seats from the Centre. It also plans to provide scholarships to the open category students in case their admission process is disturbed due to the implementation of the quota.