oppn parties NEET Counseling Dispute Must Be Resolved At The Earliest

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  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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NEET Counseling Dispute Must Be Resolved At The Earliest

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-29 06:09:02

About the Author

Sunil Garodia 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

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.