Mumbai: Five medical colleges in India have been identified to allot one seat each this year for children of deceased COVID-19 warriors.
Union minister for health and family welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan had announced the Centre’s decision to reserve five medical seats under the ‘Children of Covid Warriors (deceased)’ category.
Via a December-5 notification by the Directorate General of Health Sciences (DGHS), the five institutes that were chosen to reserve seats are: MGIMS Wardha in Maharashtra, Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh, JLN Medical College, Ajmer, in Rajasthan and Government Medical College, Haldwani, in Uttarakhand, reported Hindustan Times.
The candidates who cleared the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) exam held in September would be eligible for those five seats. Students can apply for these seats through the respective Directorate of Medical Education (DME) or Directorate of Health Services (DHS) of their domicile states, the national daily said.
The health and family welfare ministry defines COVID warriors as “public healthcare providers including community health workers, who may be in direct contact and care of Covid-19 patients and who may be at risk of being impacted by the same”.
Children of COVID warriors, who lost their lives from the coronavirus or died while on COVID-related duty, will be able to avail this special quota.
“Nominations/applications have to be routed through the DME or DHS of the concerned state after scrutiny about their eligibility. The authorities will then forward such applications to Medical Council Committee (MCC) for allotment as per the NEET merit,” the notification states.