Telangana Government Reserves Entire MBBS Seats for Locals – News18

In a recent development, medical colleges in Telangana established after 2014 will now have to reserve 100 per cent of their MBBS seats for students from the state under the competent authority quota. As per the new regulation, a total of 1,820 MBBS seats will be made available annually for aspiring students from Telangana. The state government issued an order on July 3 amending the Telangana State Medical Colleges Admission Rules, aligning it with the AP Reorganisation Act and Article 371D.

Previously, a total of 85 percent of the seats were specifically reserved for local students and the remaining 15 percent were left unreserved. Among the 20 medical colleges existing prior to the establishment of Telangana, a total of 2,850 seats were available, out of which 1,895 seats were allocated under the Competent Authority quota. Among these seats, 280 seats were not specifically reserved for any particular category. Consequently, students from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had equal chances to compete for these seats. This arrangement often disadvantaged Telangana students, leading to their exclusion in many cases.

In an effort to tackle this concern, the State government has revised the rules by restricting the unreserved quota exclusively to the 20 medical colleges that were operational in 2014.

Consequently, Telangana students will now have exclusive access to 520 additional medical seats. Telangana students were already benefiting from the existing local reservation policy, which reserved 85 (1,300) of the ‘B category’ MBBS seats. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the All India quota of 15 percent seats in the new medical colleges remains unchanged, enabling students from across the country to secure admissions based on merit.

On Tuesday, Health Minister T Harish Rao tweeted that it was a proud moment for the state. He mentioned, “Proud to share that 43 percent of MBBS seats newly added in government medical colleges in India are from Telangana. 900 of the 2118 MBBS seats increased in government medical colleges in India for 2023-24 belongs to Telangana.”

He concluded on to saying that these numbers will further go up once the remaining medical colleges get approval. As part of his commitment to improving healthcare services, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has initiated the establishment of government medical colleges in each district of Telangana. This endeavor aims to offer high-quality healthcare services and medical education opportunities to local students.