In a tweet posted on Thursday, June 15, Assam Chief Minister (CM) Himanta Biswa Sarma shared the outcomes of the weekly Assam Cabinet meeting, highlighting several important decisions that were taken.
Among the decisions, the cabinet proposed to reserve 10% of total MBBS seats for (Non-Residential Indian) NRI/NRI sponsored students who have successfully cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET - UG) examination. This reservation will be implemented on an annual basis, following the deduction of seats from various quotas.
The deduction will be made from the following quotas:
1) All India Quota: 15% of MBBS seats are reserved for students from all over India.
2) Central Pool: Seats that are reserved for central government nominees.
3) North Eastern Council Quota: Seats specifically allocated for students from the North Eastern Council region.
4) Royal Government of Bhutan Quota: Seats reserved for students sponsored by the Royal Government of Bhutan.
5) After deducting seats from these quotas, the remaining seats will be made available for the 10% reservation for NRI/NRI sponsored students who have cleared NEET UG.
One of the notable decisions made by the Assam Cabinet is the introduction of reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and the More Other Backward Classes (MOBC), specifically the non-creamy layer, in MBBS and BDS courses. The notice shared on the tweet about the amendment of the 'Medical Colleges and Dental Colleges of Assam (Regulation of admission into 1st year MBBS/BDS courses) Rule, 2017’ states the following propositions:
1) 10% of total remaining MBBS seats after deduction of 15% All India Quota, Central Pool, North Eastern Council quota, Royal Govt of Bhutan quota seats to be reserved annually for NRI/NRI-sponsored students who have cleared NEET UG
2) Increase reservation for 6 communities of OBC/MOBC category (Non Creamy Layer)
3) Reserve 10% EWS quota for MBBS seats in 6 Medical colleges - Guwahati, Bibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat, Tezpur and Barpeta
In other decisions, the Assam Cabinet has empowered autonomous councils to recruit retired executive engineers, leveraging their experience to fill key vacancies and boost infrastructure development. The Cabinet has also approved measures to provide medical care to sportspersons and has decided to discontinue physical non-judicial stamps.
