Chennai, India – DMK president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday expressed shock over 1,857 super-speciality medical seats in India lying vacant and urged the immediate intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the issue. Quoting a report published in The Hindu, Stalin said in a post on X, “It is shocking that nearly 1,857 valuable super-speciality medical seats are lying vacant across the country simply because the Union government’s Director General of Health Services (DGHS) has not reduced the qualifying percentile. This includes 40 seats exclusively meant for in-service doctors in Tamil Nadu.”
Stalin pointed out that in the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association case, the Supreme Court had directed that the percentile be reduced. He urged the Prime Minister’s immediate intervention to reduce it to zero percentile, as has been done in earlier years. “The Union government must also allow States to independently reduce the percentile for their in-service quota when seats remain vacant,” he said. “Public health is a constitutional responsibility of the States. Not a single medical seat, a precious national asset, should be allowed to go waste when our people need more specialist doctors.”
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The issue highlights the ongoing tussle between the Centre and States over medical education and public health, with Stalin’s appeal adding to the pressure on the Union government to act swiftly. The vacancies, particularly in super-speciality courses, represent a significant loss of opportunities for aspiring specialists and a setback for the country’s healthcare infrastructure.
