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IAS officer Puja Khedkar used OBC quota for MBBS, had no disability: College director
Puja Khedkar is facing allegations of securing a position in the IAS under the OBC quota and visually impaired categories.
Amid the controversy surrounding the trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar over alleged misuse of power and violation of rules of appointment, fresh reports suggest that she had secured admission for MBBS using the OBC non-creamy layer quota.
Khedkar reportedly got admission at Pune's Kashibai Navale Medical College for MBBS under the OBC Nomadic Tribe-3 category, reserved for the Vanjari community, reported India Today TV quoting people familiar with the matter.
Puja Khedkar's father was a serving bureaucrat in Maharashtra when she got admission under the OBC non-creamy layer category, according to the report. It also claimed that Khedkar secured admission through the private college's entrance examination and her Common Entrance Test (CET) score was not considered
However, Arvind Bhore, the director of Kashibai Navale Medical College, said Khedkar took admission in 2007 through the CET. Bhore also claimed that the controversial IAS officer had submitted a medical fitness certificate which didn't mention any disability.
“She had submitted the caste certificate, caste validity and non-creamy layer certificate... She also submitted the certificate of medical fitness which does not mention any disability there,” Bhore told ANI.
Khedkar's non-creamy OBC status and Persons with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) certificate are under scrutiny after she kicked up a controversy with her alleged demands for a separate cabin and staff during her posting in Pune and her abrupt transfer to Washim district.
Puja Khedkar applied for a PwBD certificate from Pune in August 2022 but the doctors turned down the request saying “it is not possible”, reported NDTV.
"... you have been examined by the undersigned / Medical Board on 11/10/2022 and I / We regret to inform that... it is not possible to issue a disability certificate in your favour," she was told in a letter.
Read: Pune Police seize Audi car of controversial IAS trainee officer Puja Khedkar
Her father and retired bureaucrat Dilip Khedkar, who contested the Lok Sabha elections and had declared property worth ₹40 crore in his poll affidavit, told the Hindustan Times that the disability certificate was legitimate.
“There are many kinds of disabilities. Puja suffers from vision impairment, which is more than 40 per cent. Therefore she fulfils 40% criteria of the disability,” he said, adding “medical experts on a panel had verified her disabilities before issuing the certificate”.
Khedkar also said his daughter has “a certain category of mental illness which was also verified by medical professionals before the disability certificate was issued”.
