J&K youth face uncertain future: Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar, Dec 4; People’s Democratic Party (PDP) President and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti Wednesday lamented over what she called the uncertain future of J&K youth owing to their fight for justice and merit and demanded that the incumbent government must revert to the reservation policies enacted in 2018.

After meeting a delegation of MD and MS aspirants, Mufti took to microblogging site X and posted that the J&K government should reinstate a statutory order ensuring fair reservation for postgraduate admissions through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

“It is crucial for the UT government to restore SRO 49 (2018) of the J&K Reservation Act to keep super-speciality medical courses accessible and protect the interests of J&K’s youth,” Mufti posted.

She referred to the 2018 order passed during her tenure as chief minister of J&K, which allocated 75 percent of postgraduate medical seats to Open Merit and reserved 25 percent for underprivileged categories.

Postgraduate aspirants claim that the orders issued in the first quarter of this year by the Department of Social Welfare replaced this policy with one that reserves 70 percent of seats, reducing the open merit quota to around 30 percent.

They argue this disproportionate allocation does not reflect J&K’s population ratios.

“J&K’s youth, who have endured years of violence and protests, now face another hurdle in the form of challenges to merit and justice in the admission process. With the recent NEET PG results adding to the uncertainty, their futures remain in jeopardy,” Mufti said.

The delegation of MD and MS aspirants rued that only 29.6 percent of MD and MS selections this year were of aspirants belonging to Open Merit, and called the list issued by the Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) a “murder of merit”.

BOPEE has maintained that it had adhered to SO 176, Rule 17 and Rule 15 of the J&K government which clearly defines the share of seats in MD, MS, and other courses.