Govt increases disabilities reservation quota in PG medical courses
New Delhi : Following the Prime Minister's idea of “sabka saath, sabka vikaas” the Health Minister J.P. Nadda has agreed to increase the percentage of seats reserved for disabled persons. There is an increase of 5% reserved seats for Disabilities in the total number of seats available for pursuing PG medical courses.
The Health Minister J.P. Nadda has taken a historical decision for welfare of the disabled almost after 20 years .The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday said it has decided to revise the regulation for admission to PG medical courses by increasing the percentage of seats reserved for disabled persons from 3% to 5%. “The percentage of seats has been increased in accordance with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016,” the Ministry said in a meeting
The ministry granted approval to amend the regulation “in order to expand the scope of persons with disabilities getting benefit of reservation”.
He also said “Now all 21 benchmark disabilities as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 can register for admission to medical courses.”
According to the revised terms, 21 kinds of disabilities including blindness, low-vision, leprosy cured persons, hearing impairment (deaf and hard of hearing), locomotor disability, dwarfism, intellectual disability, mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy will now be considered under the reservation quota
Other disabilities covered include chronic neurological conditions, specific learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis, speech and language disability, Thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities (including deafblindness), acid attack victim and Parkinson’s patients, said the official statement.
Therefore, the software used by Directorate General of Health Services for central counselling has also been amended to allow registration of all such candidates, said the Ministry.
Also, the report mentioned that registration or allotment of seats would be followed by a competitive medical examination to ascertain the level of disability before conducting the final admission procedure under the reserved quota.
