The Health Ministry on Friday clarified that its recent directive to reduce the cut-off or qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2023 to “zero” across all categories will translate into seats being offered to students till they are exhausted. This will be done through an online, transparent, counselling process which will do away with the alleged backdoor entry that was offered through some private colleges, it said.
“This does not mean that even students getting zero are eligible for a seat,” said a senior Health Ministry official, clarifying the directive issued earlier this week. “For students, this means that admission through the counselling process will be on till seats are available. This year alone, of the 68,000 seats that are available, 13,000 still haven’t been taken up,” he said.
Transparent process
The official added that this not only caused seats to go vacant, but also led to a shortage of faculty for some subjects. “Often, it’s the non-clinical subjects where seats are vacant. This new direction will ensure that seats are offered through counselling to students,” he added. The Ministry said that, last year, the cut-off percentile was reduced from 50 to around 20.
“Seats will continue to be awarded as per merit, and because it’s being done in a transparent manner, there will be no exploitation of the students. The drop in percentile will make several more students eligible for admissions. This year, over two lakh students appeared for the PG entrance exam,” the official said.
Welcoming the latest move, United Doctors Front Association national president Lakshya Mittal said that the new rules and regulations would benefit the students as they were accompanied by the transparency that is being maintained during the entire counselling procedure this academic year.
“Everything will be online. Even the stray vacancy round (for the very first time) this academic year is going to be conducted online through the government portal, which will eliminate the chances for any discrepancies or seat selling,” he said.
