New Delhi: Despite a decision by the Centre to reduce qualifying marks for leftover postgraduate (PG) seats in medical colleges to zero, nearly 1700 broad super speciality seats across institutions are likely to remain vacant, top government officials have told ThePrint.
In a circular issued on 20 September, the Union Health Ministry had allowed all candidates – who appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (PG), 2023 – to take admission in seats that were still available in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Surgery (MS) courses after two rounds of counselling.
Before this, the cut-off percentile for admission to PG seats in the first two rounds of counselling had been 50 for the unreserved category, 45 for the PwD (persons with disabilities) category, and 40 for reserved-category students.
A senior official in the health ministry had told ThePrint that the move was aimed at filling stray PG seats in medical colleges that have been going vacant year after year.
“Following the decision last month, the third and stray rounds of counsellings were conducted. Under the all India quota, no student has shown interest in taking admission to 105 seats,” a senior Ministry official in the medical education division told ThePrint.
“In addition,” the official said, “400 others who have been allocated seats did not turn up for admission during the first two days… though the reporting time ends early next week.”
In all, the official said, about 500 seats under the All India Quota and about 1200 seats under the state quota are likely to remain vacant despite all NEET PG candidates being offered the option to choose from leftover seats.
“All of the vacant seats are in non-clinical branches,” another official said, adding that a final list across medical colleges is expected to be compiled within the next ten days.
The non-clinical or research subjects include anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology and pharmacology.
These disciplines have traditionally been the last preference for most MBBS students interested in pursuing PG as they do not offer the possibility of clinical practice, the second official cited above said.
ThePrint reached out to Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant for his comments but he did not elaborate on the issue.
There are about 49,000 MS and MD seats in medical colleges of which 4,400 remained vacant last year despite lowering the cut-off percentile to 40, according to details shared by the ministry.
‘Compromise with quality not rational’
The government’s move to lower NEET PG percentile to zero evoked mixed reactions with bodies like the Indian Medical Association and the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association coming out in support while a section of healthcare professionals opposed it.
Dr C.V. Birmanandham, former vice president of the Medical Council of India – which was replaced by the National Medical Commission – told ThePrint that the problem was deep-rooted if vacant seats could still not be filled up.
“I see no logic in diluting the quality of medical education by asking all students who did not perform well in the qualifying examination to take admissions in PG seats,” he said.
If the government was worried about creating faculty for non-clinical subjects in medical colleges, he said, methods like incentivising them should be introduced so that bright students find the option lucrative.
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