A section of aspirants for postgraduate (PG) medical seats from Kerala who wrote the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) are worried if they will lose out on their allotted seats if they participate in the all-India mop-up round to fill those that fell vacant after two rounds of counselling.
According to sources, results of the second round of allotment for admissions to PG seats for students from the State were declared recently. Many are planning to participate in the all-India round of mop-up counselling, introduced for the first time, scheduled for March 12.
However, according to the rules governing NEET PG, students cannot claim the seats they get in this final round until they surrender the seats already allotted to them. The last date for the surrender has not been announced yet.
Some of the aspirants told The Hindu that they had no guarantee if they would obtain a seat in the mop-up round. It would be beneficial to the students only if the date of surrender of seats is scheduled after March 12. If the last date is before March 12 and if they fail to make it in the final round, they will lose their chances for higher education.
The main losers are those who received seats in private medical colleges after narrowly missing admissions to government medical colleges. They still stand a chance to get seats in government medical colleges in the all-India mop-up round.
Meanwhile, there are unofficial reports that aspirants can participate in the final round without surrendering the seats if they are willing to pay 10% of their current fees. They can rejoin their earlier allotted seats if they failed to get through the mop-up round of counselling. However, this could not be confirmed.
At the same time, there are allegations that the dilly-dallying on the part of the authorities is apparently a move to help private medical college managements, since a part of the unclaimed seats after the final round of counselling will go to them.
