Important: All India Quota seats in medical colleges to have 2 rounds of counselling

Chandigarh: In an important development for MBBS aspirants, the latest directions issued to deemed universities and state governments by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,(MoHFW) call for two rounds of counselling instead of the three held earlier, for All India quota seats.

The all India and state quota seat counselling is to be conducted by Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the state government (or designated authority), respectively.

Once the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), results are declared by the Central Board of Secondary Examinations, the Health Ministry counsels that 15% go onto the All India Quota seat kitty and the remaining 85% to the state government.

The new two rounds of counselling directive, will restrict an applicant taking admission under the all India Quota in his 2^nd round of counselling, from vacating the seat for a better option, which used to be the case earlier .

Explaining the reason behind limiting counselling to 2 rounds instead of the earlier three, the directions stated: “This will ensure that a few seats are reverted to the state quota and also all-India quota seats are filed by students from the all-India merit list only. The students who take admission in deemed universities pursuant to the second round of counselling conducted by the DGHS will not be eligible to participate in any other counselling.”

15% of MBBS/BDS seats of all private deemed medical universities will now be filled through the central counselling to be conducted by the DGHS , the direction further states. Earlier, deemed universities had the authority to conduct the counselling on their own for the 15% seats. With the new directive in place, these admissions will also be done under the all India Quota.

“Disallowing students who take admission under the all-India quota after the second counselling to vacate seats will stop the practice of blocking seats. However, the real effect will be seen only after its implementation. Not having a third round of counselling by the DGHS for the all-India quota seats may prove to be counterproductive,” said a NEET trainer.

In order to protect student interests and prevent colleges from denying students admissions after counselling , the directive states that a student who has secured admission in an MBBS course, after counselling conducted by the state government, is to be made to deposit a demand draft towards fee payable to the institute/college. The draft will then be forwarded to the concerned college, in order to, prevent the college from denying a student admission, after counselling.

Manual counselling will be conducted by the state to confirm the number of seats that remain vacant after the counselling .A list in order of merit, of students, is then to be forwarded by the government, (10 times the number of vacant seats available), to ensure that if their is a vacant seat available in any of the medical colleges, it is filled up from the merit list forwarded, reports HT.