Press Releases Archive

Lok Satta Party State Working President D. V. V. S. Varma today welcomed the Medical Council of India decision to conduct a National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for under-graduate medical education. “A common examination will not merely improve standards of education but also enable more Andhra Pradesh students to get medical seats in the country.”

Mr. Varma recalled in a media statement that the Supreme Court had suggested 27 years ago that 15 percent of seats in medical colleges all over the country be set apart for a national pool and they be filled based on an all-India common test. Andhra and Jammu Kashmir, however, chose not to set apart 15 percent of their seats for the national pool.

Mr. Varma pointed out that the standards of Andhra Pradesh students appearing for all competitive examinations like the JEE for IIT admission have always been higher. Andhra Pradesh students gain more seats than their share in the population. The intense demand for seats in professional colleges and the sprouting of institutions to coach students account for their sterling performance.

Yet, Andhra Pradesh students have not been able to get admission in medical colleges outside the State as the State would not allot seats to outside students based on the common entrance test.

Mr. Varma said that the State Government should ensure that the entrance exam is held in Telugu also so that students who complete Intermediate in the Telugu medium do not suffer. He also suggested that technical terms used in question papers conform to those used in Telugu Academy textbooks. A committee of experts from the Telugu Academy and the Intermediate Board should be constituted to hold talks with the authority which is to conduct the common examination.

Mr. Varma said that a standardized admission would help improve the quality of higher education. Insular and parochial approach should give way to a national approach gradually.

The Lok Satta Party is planning to launch a united, non-partisan movement against arbitrary increase in property tax in municipalities.

In-charges of Lok Satta municipal committees, who met at the party headquarters here today with party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma in the chair, felt that the tax increase ranging from 500 to 1000 percent without any improvement in citizen services contravenes the Government’s own Assessement of Taxes Rules, 1990.

Participants pointed out that special officers, now ruling civic bodies in the absence of elected representatives, raised the tax capriciously. They cited an instance in which the tax on an apartment was raised from Rs.3000 to Rs.80000.

Giving this information in a media statement, party leaders Katari Srinivasa Rao and K. Omkar said that a Lok Satta Party team would visit municipal towns and cities in the first week of November to mobilize the public for an agitation. It would associate local chambers of commerce, ratepayers’ associations, resident welfare associations and other civic society representatives with the planned movement.

The party demands that the civic bodies improve their services in tune with the citizen’s charter and fix the property tax on a rational basis.

The Lok Satta Party would call for a ‘no-tax campaign’ if the authorities went ahead with the hike in the property tax without improving services concerning drinking water, sanitation, education, healthcare and roads. If the services are not commensurate with the tax paid, people can legitimately refuse to pay the tax, said Mr. Katari Srinivasa Rao.