Srinagar: Students from different Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) of Kashmir on Tuesday staged a protest at Press Enclave, Srinagar against the pooling of MBBS, PG seats in All India Quota (AIQ).
Scores of medical students assembled in Press Enclave and said that the AIQ would result in ruining the future of aspiring doctors and would have a devastating impact on the healthcare system of J&K.
One of the female medical students said that they are worried as more than 50 percent post graduate seats have been pooled under AIQ. “50% seats from GMC Srinagar, 50% seats from GMC Jammu and 100% seats from SKIMS have been pooled in AIQ and its consequence would be that there would remain only a few specialists to cater for a huge population,” said the medical student.
She further said that all the medical students from different colleges of Kashmir have gathered here and want authorities to rescind the decision of pooling seats in AIQ.
However, another medical student during the protest said that before they used to have around 500 PG seats and with the pooling in AIQ it would fall to a number between 150-180. She said that this is one of the problems of pooling medical seats in AIQ. Besides, she further said “After any aspiring doctor from outside who would come here to complete his PG would ultimately leave from here but what about the healthcare system of J&K,” she said.
The medical students said that one of the implications of pooling seats in AIQ would be that it would have a negative impact on doctor-patient ratio as there would only remain few doctors to look after the humongous population, thus affecting the healthcare system of J&K. The protesting medical students further said that they do not need All India Quota and want their PG seats back.