BFUHS BDS Counselling: 354 seats still empty after controversial fourth round of counselling

Faridkot: The fourth round of counselling recently conducted by the nodal agency, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) has filled only 21 empty BDS seats in various dental colleges in the state after the private colleges agreed to offer a huge waiver in the tuition fee, still leaving 354 vacant. The counselling was indeed marred by controversy as one of the participating institute Desh Bhagat University, Mandi Gobindgarh on its own invited NEET-2019 qualified candidates to fill the BDS seats that were left empty after the final round of counselling at BFUHS. The advertisement by the dental college in Punjab at its own level invited the NEET qualified students on September 14 and September 15 2019, at its own campus for admission to BDS. The advertisement came following the closure of counselling by the nodal agency, BFUHS on September 13 2019. The dental college has 100 BDS seats, however, 82 remains vacant. Thus, with an objective to fill the 82 vacant seats the dental college issued the ad.

Also Read: MBBS Admissions in Punjab: BFUHS begins Round 2 Counselling for 1,437 vacant seats; View Schedule here However, BFUHS was displeased with the move and called it illegal. The agency further released a notification, stating that admission conducted by any other college or university in Punjab at their own level will not be recognized. "Admission conducted by any college/university in Punjab at their level will not be recognized and such information shall be conveyed to the respective statutory regulatory body," reads BFUHS release. To make sure that the students go through a recognised process of admission and fill 375 empty seats, BFUHS had released a notice for stray vacancy round of counselling at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot. The notice in this regard read;

In the light of requests received from various BDS colleges for the conduct of counselling for remaining vacant seats, Stray Vacancy Round of Counseling, session-2019 shall be held on 15-09-2019 (2:00 PM) at Auditorium, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot.

As per a recent media report in The Tribune, under this round of counselling, 21 students took admission. Out of the 21 candidates, 16 joined Desh Bhagat Dental College at Gobindgarh, 1 each at five dental colleges at Ferozepur, Faridkot, and Sunam and two at Dera Bassi. However, 354 BDS seats are still empty out of 1230 BDS seats in 15 dental colleges.