The Gujarat government on May 29 approved implementation of 10 per cent EWS quota in admissions to professional and medical courses from this academic year, and addition of seats to accomodate the new reservation.

Gujarat thus became the first state in the country to implement the quota, said Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel. The government approved creation of new seats for various professional courses during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar.

There will be 6,800 new seats in various medical and allied courses, and around 44,000 new seats in engineering, pharmacy, architecture and other professional courses from this year, he said. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a separate 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the general category. Now, Gujarat has become the first state to implement this quota for admissions to medical and professional courses," said Patel, who handles Health and Medical Education portfolio.

To state government will create 914 new seats for MBBS course, taking the total number of available seats in 2019-20 to 5,264, said Patel. The number of seats for related streams, such as dental and nursing, have also gone up significantly to accommodate the ten per cent quota, he said. The cabinet meeting approved addition of seats, he said.

Normally, each medical college has 150 MBBS seats. As per the Central government's formula, each medical college will add 35 new seats to accommodate EWS quota applicants, the deputy chief minister said. "Since we are not supposed to disturb the existing quota for SC, ST and OBCs, 35 new seats will be added in each of these colleges, taking the total number of seats to 185 in each medical college. Of these new 35 seats, 15 will be reserved for EWS category and the rest will be distributed among existing categories," said Patel.

The announcement regarding increase in Post Graduate medical seats will be made later, he said. Similarly, seats will be added in dental, Ayurveda, homeopathy, nursing, physiotherapy and other allied courses. Dental seats have gone up from 1,140 to 1,360, Ayurveda seats from 1,780 to 2,115, homeopathy seats from 3,525 to 4,160, nursing seats from 16,240 to 19,975, physiotherapy seats from 4,535 to 5,435 and other para-medical courses seats from 320 to 390.

In total, the state government has added 6,809 seats in medical and allied courses. Around 44,000 new seats will be added in engineering, MBA, MCA, architecture and pharmacy courses. Patel also informed that the Centre has given nod for a medical college in Amreli district.