No govt quota at SGPC’s medical college: Mgmt

FARIDKOT: Seeking to end the confusion over turning governmentquota seats of Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College (SGRDC), Amritsar, into management quota, the authorities finally claimed that there is no government quota as the institute, run by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), has been approved as a private medical university.

“All the ordinances and statutes of the university have been approved by the government. We are very much a private medical university and thus there is no government quota,” said Dr AP Singh, dean, SGRDC.

The eligible candidates on the basis of NEET examination will appear for preference of colleges for MBBS and BDS courses at BFUHS on Monday.

Notably, state government officials had discussed the issue on Friday in Chandigarh, but no decision was announced.

“Whatever modifications were pointed out in the meeting held on Friday, we have agreed to follow the same,” the dean said.

“We are a medical university since November 17, 2016, and we are not bound to have a government quota. We had to get the statutes approved and that has been done,” he added.

In a statement on Sunday, SGPC chief secretary Harcharan Singh said, “All 150 MBBS seats of the SGRDC will be filled by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) on the basis of National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET)”.

He asserted that there is no government quota in any private medical university of the country. “Out of 150 seats in SGRDC, 42.5% seats are minority quota seats, 15% are NRI seats and the remaining 42.5% seats are for residents of Punjab with all constitutional reservations,” said Harcharan Singh.

The fee for minority quota at the institute is around ₹40 lakh. This is about four times the cost (around ₹10 lakh) of a seat in the government quota.

BFUHS STICKS TO OLD PATTERN OF SEATS

Meanwhile, BFUHS on Sunday released the old pattern of seats available with SGRDC, including 50% government quota.

Vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur said, “Till date, we are considering the government quota seats with SGRDC. As and when we get any fresh information from the department of medical education and research, we will consider modifications.”