148 from EWS quota land pricey private medical seats

The EWS certificate reserves 10% of the medical seats for general category students from poor backgrounds — a measure to ensure that poorer students are able to join government colleges that usually have a lower fee structure. There is usually no concession in fees for the EWS seats.

“The management or NRI quota seats were allocated to the EWS candidates during the state counselling — this is not part of the all India quota. The states should investigate the matter and take appropriate action,” said Dr Abhijat Sheth, chairman of the National Medical Commission.

The number of EWS category students who have availed of such seats is likely to go up during the subsequent rounds of medical counselling.

The EWS certificate, issued by district officials, acknowledges that a candidate’s family income is less than Rs 8 lakh per annum and their family does not possess assets such as agricultural land of 5 acres or more, residential flat of 1,000 square feet or bigger, or a residential plot of 100 or 200 square yards or more.

This discrepancy between means and the fees paid by the candidates has existed since the quota was implemented during the 2021-22 academic year. “This has been happening since the quota was introduced. The intent behind the EWS quota was good — candidates who may not belong to the SC/ST or OBC categories but have been economically backward for generations would benefit. But many people are able to get fake certificates. The matter has previously been raised at the NMC, but there is no good way to plug the loophole,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, former head of Maharashtra’s department of medical education and research.

Students apply with the EWS certificates hoping to benefit from the quota, but when they secure a lower rank they take the management seats, says Dr Shingare. All unreserved seats, including management and NRI seats, are open to all including those who have previously applied through EWS, SC, ST or OBC quota. “When you investigate the matter, the candidates say that their uncle, aunt, or other family members are sponsoring their education, or a trust is funding it, or they have secured a loan. What do you do then?” he said.

The first rank to avail such a paid management or NRI quota seat, belonging to a candidate from the EWS category, is close to 12,000 at JSS Medical College in Karnataka.

The last rank to get such a seat is close to 1.13 lakh at Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences in Karad. To be sure, the last rank to secure a seat during the first round of counselling for PG seats was around 1.38 lakh.

Most of these seats belong to highly sought-after specialties such as general medicine (26), general surgery (20) and anaesthesiology (17).

These seats were also in private colleges, mainly from Maharashtra (55), Karnataka (27) and Tamil Nadu (23). While Maharashtra has a high number of medical seats, both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have a high density of medical colleges. The highest number (19) of these paid seats allocated to EWS candidates were in medical colleges from the DY Patil group in Kolhapur, Navi Mumbai and Pune.