BRS urges State govt. to form expert panel to assess impact of NEET on Telangana students

BRS demands expert committee to address NEET disadvantages for Telangana students, criticises NDA government's handling of the issue.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Tuesday requested the State government to constitute an expert committee to weigh the advantages and disadvantages for students from Telangana with the all-India pool in medical education (NEET) and faulted the approach of NDA government at the Centre led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in handling the NEET fiasco.

Senior leader of the BRS and former MP B. Vinod Kumar demanded to know why BJP leaders, particularly union ministers G. Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who, he said, had raised hue and cry when Group-I exam paper was leaked in the State, were remaining silent now. He also questioned why the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had not registered a case so far despite large amounts of money changing hands.

Addressing a press conference here along with former minister Koppula Eshwar and others, he said the NEET issue automatically qualified for ED probe in the wake of reports that the exam paper was leaked in Bihar and Gujarat, and copies of the leaked paper was sold for up to ₹30 lakh each. A large number of students from Telangana, too, had appeared for NEET and they were at a loss due to question the paper leak.

Mr. Vinod Kumar explained that students of Telangana were suffering huge losses with all-India pool in under-graduate and post-graduate medicine seats. There were 30 medical postgraduate colleges, including 10 government ones. The total PG seats were 2,978, of which government ones were only 1,267. However, 50% of the PG seats in government medical colleges go to the all-India pool.

Similarly, there were 54 medical colleges, including 27 in government ones, offering undergraduate courses. Of the 8,265 seats, government colleges have 3,815, and 15% of them were going to the all-India pool, causing a loss of 519 seats to Telangana students.

Students from Telangana were not taking admission in other States due to poor infrastructure there and also the fear of losing out on the opportunity of getting PG seat in the State as they would become non-local both in Telangana and in another State, he explained.

With Telangana having more medical colleges in government sector, the State was losing more seats to the all-India pool as the all-India quota was being implemented only in government colleges, the BRS leader said. He sought to know whether NEET was introduced only to benefit students from northern states at the cost of those in the southern states.