Hyderabad: Consistent efforts to increase medical seats by Telangana government have now enabled a large section of students from backward communities and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) to realise their dreams of becoming a doctor. A year ago, a higher rank in medical entrance exams meant that local OBC students struggled to get a medical seat in Telangana. From this academic year however, due to successful efforts by the State government, a large number of such students have been able to get an MBBS seat in Telangana itself.
For instance, this academic year, perhaps for the first time in the Country, a local student with a rank of 8, 78, 200 has been allotted a medical seat in Telangana. Under the convenor quota, a lot of opportunities to get a medical seat have opened-up for BC, SC, ST, BC-B students.
A slew of measures taken-up by the Telangana government including starting 8 new medical colleges, reserving 85 percent of B-category medical seats for local students and increasing reservation for ST students from 6 percent to 10 percent have played a major role in increasing the pool of MBBS seats.
More seats under Convenor quota
During the last academic year of 2021-22, the category-A convenor quota seats available for students from Telangana was 3038. Due to the launch of 8 medical colleges, in the same category, the number of MBBS seats has now increased to 4094.
The decision to increase the ST reservation from 6 percent to 10 percent has also played a vital role in the enhancement of MBBS seats. In the last academic year (2021-22), students from ST category had access to 223 medical seats and this year (2022-2023), there are 429 medical seats available. Last year, a student from OBC category with a rank of 1, 46, 391 was unable to get a medical seat. However, this year due to a larger pool of medical seats, a student with a higher rank of 2, 09, 646 has bagged a MBBS seat.
Women candidates have also continued to dominate the space of medicine by managing to acquire a lion’s share i.e. 63 percent of medical seats during this academic year.
Eight new medical colleges established this year
Last year: Convenor Quota: Allotted seats followed by last rank in brackets