MUMBAI: In what could bring relief to lakhs of MBBS aspirants across the country, the Centre’s Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has decided to allow students to upgrade their choice of colleges up to the third round of the counselling process. Since 2018, DGHS’ Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) allowed upgradation of choices only till round two.
This meant that students were stuck with the seats allotted to them in the second round and did not get a chance to try their luck even if better seats were available in round three. The third round, in fact, was open only for students without seats.
The change in policy, however, comes with a rider – if students do not join the seats allotted to them in the second or third round, they will lose their refundable deposit amount, which is Rs 10,000 for the all-India quota seats and central institutions and Rs 2 lakh for deemed universities. Parents, however, welcomed the move stating that this would act as a deterrent for students who unnecessarily block seats.
“The earlier policy, which was in practice for five years, has been withdrawn to give students the benefit of the third round, also called the mop-up round. This is also to ensure that meritorious students do not lose out on a seat of their choice,” said an official from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The MCC conducts four admission rounds in all. The NEET-UG counselling process, for admissions to the 15% all-India quota seats, deemed and central universities, and all AIIMS and JIPMER, will commence from Thursday.
In another important move, the directorate has mentioned that students who are allotted seats in the stray round (fourth and final one) and do not join them, will be debarred from participating in the NEET-UG admission process for two years along with losing their deposit money. The admission rules were announced in the brochure released by the MCC for all-India quota admissions on Tuesday.
A parent said that the changes will bring relief to students, as many a times, seats are vacant in top-rung government colleges after two rounds. “With no chance to upgrade, meritorious students were deprived from choosing these seats and students with lower merit ranks were getting the benefit,” he said.
“Now, the students can not only upgrade their choices for the third round, but the ones without seats can also register afresh for the stray round,” said parent representative Sudha Shenoy.
