As per the Rule, 13 and 14 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005, the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir government distributed the MBBS seats among various categories where two percent each of the total seats were reserved for residents of Leh and Kargil.

On the same pattern, after the bifurcation of the State, the J&K Govt in 2020 announced reservation of four percent seats in its engineering and medical colleges for Students hailing from Ladakh as the latter had no separate medical and engineering colleges of their own.

However, the MBBS aspirants of Ladakh have time to time complained over being “deprived” of the open merit seats despite securing equivalent marks. The candidates have been deprived for two years even before bifurcation.

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The aspirants from Ladakh who score equivalent to General Category are also included in the same four percent reserved seats. Last year a candidate from Kargil who ranked 137 on the list, who was also the Ladakh topper, was allotted a seat under STK. The current year Ladakh topper who secured 631 (84 percent) marks is also awaiting a similar fate.

In this process, the candidates who secure marks in par to open merit are also supposed to sign a compulsory service bond with the Administration like the candidates in the reserved category. The medicos of Ladakh had also staged a massive protest in this regard. The medical aspirants said that they are deprived of the open merit and compulsory service bond resulting in demotivating them from pursuing MBBS. Now the students are demanding relaxation in the compulsory service bond and eligibility for open merit seats. The Administration should consider the demands of the medical students.