Hyderabad: The Students Federation of India (SFI) Telangana committee has demanded that the state government withdraw GO 33, which determines domicile status for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses.
In a statement, SFI state president RL Murthy and secretary T Nagaraju expressed concern that due to GO 33, Telangana students who studied classes IX to XII in other states could potentially lose their domicile status.
The SFI leaders argued that this move would negatively impact Telangana students aspiring for medical education.
They urged the government to revoke GO 33 and protect the interests of local students.
BRS opposes GO 33
The principal opposition party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) also expressed opposition to the Government Order.
Cautioning that Telangana students could be considered as non-locals in their own state due to GO 33 issued by the Medical Education Department for admissions to MBBS, former health minister T Harish Rao demanded the state government to call for an all-party meeting on the issue. He also sought to amend GO 33 after constituting a committee on the issue.
“The state government’s handling of affairs is like a bull in a china shop—there is no clarity on any issue, and there is no consideration for the future of the students,” Harish Rao said while addressing the media on Wednesday. The former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) minister added that according to the bifurcation (of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) law, admissions in educational institutions were supposed to maintain a 15% open competition for ten years following the old method from the unified state.
Harish Rao pointed out that in 1979, GO 644 established local status for educational admissions for Andhra, Telangana, and Rayalaseema, preventing non-local students from gaining opportunities in these areas.
“Following the state’s bifurcation in 2014, it was specified in GO 124 that the old rules should continue for ten years based on the presidential order. Before 2014, 40% of jobs were secured by non-locals, but now 95% of jobs are allocated to Telangana residents, thanks to GO 124,” Harish Rao said.
“The 15% open competition quota was only implemented in colleges that existed before the formation of Telangana. In the newly established colleges, 100% of the seats were allocated to Telangana students, which resulted in an additional 520 seats for our students,” the ex-Telangana minister pointed out.
He said that under former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s government under the BRS, MBBS seats in Telangana had increased from 2,850 to 9,000.
Harish Rao stated that the former BRS government brought a GO to ensure that seats in the B category in private medical colleges were given to local students, resulting in 1,071 seats in 24 colleges reserved only for Telangana students.
