A recent rumour which was circulating on social media about the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government announcing the end of caste-based reservations in private medical and dental colleges of UP was eventually put to rest after confirming that caste-based reservations never existed in Uttar Pradesh private medical colleges in the first place.
A decision to remove caste-based reservations was taken by the outgoing Akhilesh Yadav-led UP government but now, constant efforts are being put in to remove the reservation system in all educational institutions of Uttar Pradesh by the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government though no official confirmation or decision has been made yet.
Earlier, it was mistakenly believed that the Yogi government already passed an order to get rid of the reservation quota for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).
Nonetheless, the authorities at the state medical education department were quick to deny the news.
“Reservation was never a part of the admission process in private sector medical and dental colleges as per the prevalent policy made in 2006. There has been no change in any policy whatsoever,” VN Tripathi, the director general of medical education, told the TOI.
The news report was initially published by the India Today group taking reference from Aaj Tak TV but the news was telecasted as soon as the mistake was realized.
Dr Tripathi told the TOI that the BJP government was making efforts to regulate functioning in private medical and dental colleges after orders from the Supreme Court of India.
Private medical and dental colleges had been brought under the charge of NEET. Seats in these colleges are now allocated based on the NEET scores of candidates.
Denying any new order issued by Yogi government, as claimed by media outlets, principal secretary, medical education dismissed reports as a possible act of mischief to defame the credibility of the new government, the Indian Express reported.
Considering the fact that BJP government aggressively had sought to attract SC, ST and OBC voters, the news’ that Yogi Adityanath was scrapping caste-based reservation for students is expected to have been met with hostility from these groups.
Recent Update:
In January 2019, UP became the third state after Gujarat and Jharkhand, to implement 10% quota for the ones who come from economically backward sections of the society (EWS quota) among the upper castes in government jobs as well as educational institutions.
