MUMBAI: Only a small number of seats in popular post-graduate medical courses will be left for open category students following reservations for Marathas and economically weaker sections of society. More than 4,100 aspirants have registered for these post-graduate seats, of whom close to 55% are from the open category. and they have less than 100 of the total 700 seats available to them in civic and government colleges.After setting aside the required number for reservations, 22 seats are left in the open category for surgery, 16 seats in gynaecology, eight in radiology, three in dermatology and seven in opthalmology.Parents of these aspirants, in an interaction on Thursday, said meritorious students would now be in the minority. Ruiee Kapoor, one of the parents, said while the Central government is facilitating an increase in seats in Central institutes, the state does not have the infrastructure to likewise increase the numbers.Shreyasi Tendulkar, an MBBS graduate who is now seeking a seat in a PG course, called it “an injustice” to meritorious student. “We are not against affirmative action. We are just saying that meritorious students should not be in the minority with all the reservations. We are just asking for equal opportunity,” said Tendulkar.Parents of PG medical aspirants had gathered for a public meet to discuss their future course of action. “If we do not get relief from the high court, we are prepared to take our fight to the apex court. We need to come together in large numbers.”The state’s common entrance test (CET) cell had put up the seat matrix but removed it immediately thereafter as a decision on the Maratha quota is pending, alleged a student. The cell is waiting for state level ranks to be released by the Centre to prepare the merit rank list. A total of 4,166 of the 7,000 students who qualified from the state registered for PG admissions.

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