Chennai, June 4 (IANS). A new debate has erupted in the political and health sector regarding 152 super specialty medical seats in Tamil Nadu. State opposition leader Udhayanidhi Stalin appealed to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay for immediate intervention.
He said that if these seats were handed over to All India Quota (AIQ), it would have a direct impact on government doctors and the public health system of the state.
Udhayanidhi Stalin, in a letter to the Chief Minister, cited the Supreme Court’s May 29 order directing transfer of 152 vacant super specialty medical seats in the state to the national pool. He alleged that the state government could not effectively present Tamil Nadu’s case in the Supreme Court during the recent hearing, due to which this situation arose.
He informed that a total of 430 super specialty seats were available in Tamil Nadu under NEET 2025. Of these, 215 seats were reserved for doctors in government service (in-service doctors) under a long-standing state policy. However, through regular counselling, admission could be done only on 63 seats and after the completion of the second phase process, 152 seats remained vacant.
After this, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court, demanding inclusion of these vacant seats in the All India Quota. Udhayanidhi Stalin claims that during the hearing held on April 8, 10 and 16, the then DMK government had presented the state’s side strongly and was successful in stopping the transfer of seats. But after the change of government the legal strategy weakened.
He alleged that in the hearing on May 25 and 29, the counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu could not present some important legal arguments before the court. Especially N. The inapplicability of the earlier decision in the Karthikeyan case, which was cited by the petitioner, was not pointed out.
Udhayanidhi Stalin warned that the transfer of these seats to AIQ would reduce opportunities for government doctors to pursue higher specialization. This will impact the availability of specialist doctors in government hospitals in future. The affected seats include important disciplines like cardiothoracic surgery, pediatric surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, urology and vascular surgery.
They have demanded Chief Minister Vijay to review the legal position of the state, stop the seats from going to AIQ and protect the interests of government doctors of Tamil Nadu.
–IANS
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