Mumbai: A month after the deadline for MBBS admissions closed, the centre has announced the conduct of an additional round to fill vacant seats in undergraduate medical courses across the country, based on a Supreme Court directive. Around 2,200 seats are said to be vacant in MBBS alone, including 156 in the all-India quota. The total vacancies also include those seats to which the admissions were declared invalid by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for violating norms about 10 days ago. In Maharashtra, 141 such admissions were invalidated as they were conducted at institute level.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had approached the apex court to seek an extension of last date for admissions to prevent the wastage of ‘precious’ medical seats in larger public interest. An official said that the ministry had received a lot of representations from state governments and students seeking an extension of the last date of admissions and for a special round. Based on the court order, on Tuesday, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), under the centre’s Directorate General of Health Services, announced the conduct of a special stray vacancy round to fill all vacant undergraduate seats, including MBBS/BDS/BSc Nursing seats in all-India and state quota. The fresh deadline to close all admissions has been set as November 15. Some of these seats are also vacant in sought-after government colleges.
The centre, in the court, mentioned that 2,182 seats are vacant in MBBS alone. A ministry official said that these also include the seats that were discharged a few days ago, after the NMC circular. “The states can conduct counselling in these seats (admissions to which were declared invalid) once again and if proper NMC approved process has been followed, then earlier admissions will be regularised,” said the official. While in many other states admissions were declared invalid for violating the September 30 deadline, in Maharashtra, admissions to 141 seats were cancelled for allowing admissions at institute level- which was not permitted by the NMC this year.
Will it mean that admissions to all the 141 seats that were declared invalid will have to be redone in Maharashtra? asked parent Brijesh Sutaria. Two of these students were given temporary relief in a HC order. A medical education department official from Maharashtra said that they did not have any vacancies as on September 30. As for the 141 admissions that were cancelled, a letter has been sent to the union ministry seeking acceptance of those admissions, said the official, adding that they are waiting for a response.
“The central government could have moved court and sought extension in October itself, what is the point of seeking extension a month after the admissions are over?” asked parent representative Sudha Shenoy. “What will happen to these students who have been attending classes for a month now?” she asked.
The circular issued by the MCC, mentioned that all registered candidates will have to pay a refundable security deposit of Rs 50,000 for participating in the special stray round and that the amount will be forfeited and the candidates will be debarred from taking NEET next year if they do not join the allotted seats. Only candidates who are not holding any seat are allowed to participate in this round. And candidates who did not join the seats allotted to them post round three, will not be eligible. For state level seats, the MCC has directed students to seek information from state counselling authorities. States have been asked to conduct the additional round after the all-India list is out.
