Implement state-mandated OBC reservations in NEET AIQ seats, OBC group tells Health Minister Mandaviya

On July 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked Dharmendra Pradhan and Mansukh Mandaviya, ministers of Education, and Health and Family Welfare respectively, to resolve the issue of implementing the OBC reservations in NEET's All India Quota seats on priority. The move was lauded by activists who have been campaigning for the cause.

The All India Federation of Other Backward Classes Employee's Welfare Association, one of those organisations has now written to Mandaviya, asking him to immediately implement state-specific reservations in OBC seats that fall under the All India Quota. On Monday, while making a submission at the Madras High Court, the union government had said that the Centre's decision on implementing OBC reservation for MBBS seats available under All India Quota (AIQ) in state government colleges is at a 'very advanced stage'.

"In this regard, we once again reiterate that every year OBC students are denied thousands of seats both in UG and PG courses allotted under the All India Quota seats contributed by the States," their letter says. The organisation had previously said that the non-implementation of OBC reservations had led to the loss of over 11,000 medical seats in the country. "Nearly 40,800 medical seats have been contributed by the states from the colleges run by them to the All India Quota. In these seats, the OBC reservation is zero," it says.

At the same time, talking about the EWS reservations, the letter says, "The rider clause of 50 per cent ceiling is a totally irrelevant consequent, upon the enactment of 10 per cent EWS reservation Act."