Congress seeks Odisha help to stop medical college admissions

BHUBANESWAR: The Congress on Thursday sought intervention of Governor Raghubar Das to stop admission to medical colleges and ask the state government to implement 38.75 per cent and 25 per cent reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs respectively.

All the 14 MLAs of the party, led by CLP leader Rama Chandra Kadam submitted a memorandum to the Governor at Raj Bhavan demanding the OJEE committee be allowed to proceed with admission process only after the reservations are implemented.

The memorandum said while the state government implemented the Centre’s 2009 directive to reserve 10 per cent of the seats for the economically-weaker sections, benefitting only six per cent of the population, it has remained silent on providing OBC students their due share. The OBCs comprise 54 per cent of the state’s population, it stated. Exclusion of the OBCs persists even after the enactment of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act of 2006 which mandates reservation for them across the country.

The primary concern stems from the disparity in reservation policy. While reservation of 22.5 per cent for STs, 16.25 per cent for SCs and 11.25 per cent for OBCs is mandated in higher education, in technical courses such as MBBS and engineering, STs get 12 per cent while SCs get 8 per cent reservation. The OBCs have no reservation at all, the party said.