HYDERABAD: It will be a tight rope walking for the State government if it decides to join the national pool in offering 15 per cent of MBBS and post-graduate seats to other States on a reciprocal basis.

        Chief Minister K. Rosaiah has already decided to convene an all-party meeting to discuss he issue after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had recently asked the government whatsteps it intended to take in implementing a Supreme Court direction to keep 15 per cent of medical seats for Central pool.

‘Sensitive issue'Senior officials are of the view that it is a sensitive issue as a balancing act was requiredkeeping in view the Six Point Formula and the Presidential Order that necessitate rotecting regional interests. J. Satyanarayana, Principal Secretary, Medical and Health, said it mighttake one week to hold the all-party meeting as the government has to be prepared with background material for the purpose.

The State has to give up at least 270 MBBS and 165 post-graduate seats to students from other States if it decides to join the Central pool which it quit in 1985 when N.T. Rama Rao was ChiefMinister. The two-way reciprocity in the implementation of the norm would also enable students from Andhra Pradesh to corner 15 per cent of 30,000 medical seats on offer at the national-level.There are 1,800 MBBS seats and 1,094 post-graduate seats in government sector and 2,600 MBBS and413 post-graduate seats in private sector in the State. The number of seats that the State may have to offer to Central pool could be much more than the expected 270 MBBS and 165 post-graduate seats if the government decides to include the private sector also in the scheme.

   However, Mr. Satyanarayana said the Ministry's letter to the government only referred to government and semi-government institutions. Former Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MP B. VinodKumar said the party had not discussed its proposed stand at the all-party meeting, particularly with regard to implementation of Six Point Formula and Presidential Order. However, the TRS would seek safeguard of interests of students from Telangana. He welcomed the decision to review the situation after 25 years