EWS Quota: Gujarat announces 25% seat hike in medical and allied courses

The Gujarat Government has announced a 25% hike in the seats for medical and allied courses. Some of the courses where the seats have been hiked include MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and various other paramedical courses. The Gujarat Government has also approved the addition of seats in engineering and other professional courses. The decision to introduce a 25% hike in the seats in all medical and dental colleges in Gujarat State was taken to implement the 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWs) reservations.

Nitin Patel, Deputy Chief Minister, Gujarat told the media that EWS quota was first implemented by the Gujarat state. He also said that 'with the execution of EWS quota, the state government had to ensure that it does not gobble the existing SC/ST/OBC seats availed by Gujarat. Therefore, the government has reached a decision on providing 25% more seats to candidates belonging to reserved categories. For inclusion under EWS category, students from the non-reserved category must have an annual family income less than 8 lakhs.'

A total of 914 new seats will be added to the existing 4350 seats in the MBBS courses and 220 new seats will be added to 1140 BDS courses offered by the various medical and dental colleges in Gujarat. Deputy CM Gujarat further said that the state had also approved the proposal for a new medical college in Amerli that was supposed to start with a strength of 150 MBBS seats that have now been increased to 185 seats. The Bachelor of Ayurvedic Surgery (BAMS) will also see an addition of 335 new seats that will make the total number of seats being offered under this program in the Gujarat state to 2115 seats. Also, the seats in the nursing courses offered in the state are also set to increase from current 16240 seats to 3375 seats with the addition of 19975 new seats.

Apart from this, the degree engineering colleges will see a hike of around 12, 661 seats whereas courses such as pharmacy, MBA and MCA will see an increase of 959, 1,715 and 2,000 seats respectively. Also, courses in architecture and diploma engineering will see an increase of 316 and 12, 943 seats respectively.