Extend 27 p c reservation for OBCs in AIPMPD, AIPGMEE:TN CM

Chennai, Feb 28 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today urged the Centre to extend 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to important all-India level entrance examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses like AIPMPD and AIPGMEE.

In separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, a copy of which was circulated to the media here, he said seats under the Central quota in the large number of state government medical colleges were being filled through these examinations.

Considering the fact that only these exams accounted for the huge number of Central quota seats in medical colleges and the large number of OBC students aspiring for professional education, it was imperative that the reservation for OBCs should logically be extended to these examinations as well, he said.

Welcoming the provision of separate reservation for SC/STs in the All India Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examination (AIPGMEE) introduced recently by the Centre, Mr Karunanidhi said the reservation would truly benefit students only if it was implemented in terms of individual courses offered through a roster system, as is being successfully done in Tamil Nadu and at AIIMS.

The same principle should be adopted during the extension of reservation to OBCs as well, he said and stressed that necessary steps be taken in this regard to ensure that ''social justice prevailed in its full scope and the dreams of thousands of OBC students are fulfilled.'' More UNI