Medical college students protest against reservation in New Delhi

[Angel]

New Delhi, Apr 19: Nearly 800 students of five premier medical colleges in Delhi today protested against the Centre's proposed move to reserve seats for OBCs in elite institutions saying the proposal, if implemented, will create "quota doctors" which will have "disastrous" consequences.

Wearing black badges and carrying anti-reservation placards, the slogan shouting students under the banner of "Youth for Equality" also resolved to take their fight to other cities of the country saying compromising quality in medical profession would "be too costly" for the country and they were strongly determined to thawrt any such "politically motivated move".

The students of AIIMS, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), University College of Medical Sciences and Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College, who gathered near Rajghat also took out a procession to MAMC.

"Reservation in medical colleges will be too costly and disastrous as crucial decisions regarding life and death are made every second. The proposal is guided by considerations of caste based vote-bank politics and we are determined to put up a big fight against the move," said Abhimanyu Sarma, convenor of Youth for Quality, a body recently formed to campaign against the reservation.

Observing that the move has the potential to divide the student community, he said the forum has already found support from students of JNU, DU and IIT, Delhi and they are now in touch with medical colleges of other cities who are also eager to join the movement.

Another convenor Arka Chatterjee said the forum would submit memoranda to President APJ Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh in coming days.