NEET Counseling Dispute Must Be Resolved At The Earliest
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-29 06:09:02
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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The continuing strike by doctors in Delhi is a result of too many factors. First, due to the Covid situation, the normal schedule of NEET exam in January and counseling in March was not possible this year. The exam was held in September and the results were declared at the end of the month. Normally, the counseling would have been over by November and almost 45000 doctors would have joined their respective colleges in December. But the court case against the 27% OBC and 10% economically weaker section (EWS) quota delayed the counseling process. The next hearing in the Supreme Court is on January 6. The government has assured the striking doctors that it will resolve the issue in court and has asked them to call off the stir. But the doctors have refused to listen.
As the Covid situation once again seems to be escalating with the Omicron threat looming large, an additional 45000 doctors in medical colleges will give a huge boost to India's medical infrastructure. The doctors are not wrong. The EWS quota angle is being dragged in the court for a long time. Essentially, the court wants to know how the government arrived at the figure an annual income of Rs. 8 lakh as the threshold to decide economic weakness. The court wants to know whether any logical thinking went into arriving at the figure or whether it was done arbitrarily. If the government had done so logically, it should present its calculations instantly. Why ask for time for something that must be there in the records?
The government must ensure that it resolves the matter in the Supreme Court on January 6. It must present facts before the court and impress upon it that healthcare services are being derailed due to the strike by the doctors and decision has to be taken fast. In the meantime, given the rising number of Covid cases, the doctors must end their strike and return to work. They can resume the agitation if nothing positive happens in the court on that date or the next date if the Supreme Court does not give its decision on that day.
