Online counselling must for MBBS & PG seats, says NMC
Hyderabad: Ahead of the MBBS and post-graduate (PG) medical admission process for the 2023-24 academic year, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) to carry out counselling only in the online mode. Physical counselling should not be done under any circumstances, NMC, the apex body which regulates medical education, said in a letter to the health varsity.
The move is significant after PG seat-blocking scam in 2022. KNRUHS officials had even lodged a police complaint and several private medical colleges are under investigation for fraudulently blocking seats and later selling them under the management quota.
It is for the first time counselling will be done in online mode and hence the flexibility private colleges enjoyed in filling up vacant seats would be curtailed. As per mandate, online counselling for stray vacancy round for 100 per cent seats in deemed universities in undergraduate and PG courses has to be done. Although online counselling could be conducted many times, the seats, which remain vacant after a few rounds of online counselling, must be left vacant.
“All state counselling agencies are requested to make necessary arrangement for conducting counselling in online mode, for all rounds, including stray vacancy round in private medical colleges from year 2023-2024,” the letter stated. “It will help in tackling the issue of seat blocking,” the letter added.
Till last year, after two rounds of counselling for ‘B’ category seats (management quota seats in private colleges) and final mop up round, remaining seats were converted to ‘C’ (NRI) category quota seats, with fee between 11.55 lakh and 60 lakh per year. A KNRUHS official said, “By making the entire counselling process online, duplication of names will not be possible.”
Source – ETHealth World
