Mumbai: The counselling process for medical and dental courses in the country will tentatively commence from July 20. Laying all doubts to rest about a centralised counselling in the country, the Directorate General of Health Services’ (DGHS) Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), on Friday released a tentative schedule for MBBS/BDS counselling in all-India quota seats. The notification mentions nothing about the states. It will be the same as last year, but there is a possibility of an overlap in the schedules for all-India and state seats, said an official from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.The notification released by the MCC mentioned that it was a tentative schedule for online counselling for NEET-UG in seats from all-India quota, deemed, central universities, all AIIMS institutes and JIPMER. While verification of the tentative seat matrix by the participating institutes will be done on July 20 and 21, for students, registration will commence on July 20 and choice filling on July 22.
After the National Medical Commission (NMC) mooted centralised counselling in a gazette notification in June, students and parents applauded the move and were looking forward to it. A centralised process will save students from the anxiety of a highly-stressful admission process and also bring in more transparency. However, a ministry official later said that even if the all-India process included states, it would be voluntary in the first year. The official had mentioned that the Centre is in talks with state counselling authorities to understand their process and reservations and include it all in one software. The confusion continued for some time, as the Centre did not release any schedule even a month after the NEET-UG results were out. Friday’s notification, though clarifies that there will be no centralised process, it still does not mention anything about the state’s admission schedule.
Dr Milind Navlakhe, parent of an aspirant, said there has been confusion throughout. “There is no clarity on the state’s schedule even now, though it looks like it will happen simultaneously as there is no gap between each round. Also, it seems like they have crunched the entire schedule to complete the process soon. Parents, who are not clued into the developments, will have a difficult time and some meritorious students may even lose out on a seat of their choice,” said Dr Navlakhe.
Parent representative, Sudha Shenoy, said, “The circular this time does not mention state schedule. Till last year, the Centre would conduct the first round of counselling, followed by the state’s first round and then Centre’s second round. This time, however, dates for all-India counselling are given back-to-back.” The ministry official, however, said DGHS conducts admission rounds only for all-India quota seats and state’s schedule will probably be announced by NMC this time. “Some dates were overlapping even before. There will be no change in the process,” said the official.
