547 MBBS, 8,616 PG Medical, 6,091 BDS went vacant in 2018-19, 2019-20: Health Minister

The information to this effect was recently shared in a Rajya Sabha session when Shri Shamsher Singh Dullo asked the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoS Health) about the details of vacant seats, State-wise and year-wise.

The minister presented the data in his reply before the parliament members. As per the information provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC), and the Dental Council of India (DCI), the State-wise details of seats vacant in MBBS, PG medical courses and BDS for the year 2018-19 and 2019-20 are as follows:

For MBBS course:

In the 2018-19 academic session, over 274 seats from the MBBS course left unfilled. the maximum number of vacant seats were from the state of Madhya Pradesh with over 149 MBBS seats followed by Telangana with 75 seats. 16 MBBS seats were vacant from Bihar and 4 from Delhi.

Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Orissa and Tripura had 2 MBBS seats vacant that year. Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab had 3 lying around.

The states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal has only 1 seat left vacant.

Meanwhile, there were no seats vacant from the states and UTs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu.

The next academic year of 2019-20 saw over 273 seats lying around vacant across the country.

Shockingly, the maximum seats were vacant from Jharkhand courting to the total of 114 while there were no seats vacant the previous year. The second came J&K with 55 MBBS seats lying vacant.

Orissa had 21 MBBS seats unfilled while Tamil Nadu had 10 and West Bengal and Maharashtra had 9 each. Telangana followed with over 8 vacant MBBS seats and Haryana with 7.

Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, both had 6 seats left to be filled that year followed by Gujarat and Rajasthan with 5 seats each. The states of UP and Bihar had 4 seats vacant while 2 were unfilled in Delhi and MP.

Assam, Chandigarh, Kerala, Punjab, Manipur and Tripura had only 1 seat left while there were no seats vacant from the states of Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim, Uttrakhand and Andaman and Nicobar Isalnds.

For PG Medical Courses:

4,002 PG Medical seats were lying vacant in the year 2018-19; the maximum being in the states of Karnataka (563), Maharashtra (520), Tamil Nadu (477), Gujarat (343), Andhra Pradesh (303).

The list is followed by UP with 256 PG medical seats lying vacant, Delhi with 231 seats, Rajasthan with 164, Haryana with 145, West Bengal with 141 seats. Kerala had 115 PG medical seats unfilled that year.

Bihar had 94 followed by Odisha at 88 unfilled seats. 84 PG medical seats were vacant from Puducherry and Assam. JnK stood at 41, Telangana at 53, Uttrakhand at 52, Jharkhand at 35 and Goa at 21 unfilled PG medical seats.

Chandigarh had 8, Chhattisgarh had 3, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and MP had 14, Meghalaya had 9 and Sikkim had 8 seats vacant. No seats were left unfilled from the state of Tripura.

Coming to the next academic session of 2019-2020, a whopping number of 4614 PG medical seats found no students.

A massive 1723 PG medical seats were vacant from the state of Maharashtra followed by Karnatak with 530, Delhi with dripping down to 310.

West Bengal had 268, UP had 237, Gujarat had 230, Tamil Nadu had 160, Andhra Pradesh had 149, Bihar had 125 and MP had 139 seats unfilled that year.

99 seats were vacant from Telangana, 104 from Rajasthan, 87 from Odisha, 57 from Punjab, 46 from Puducherry, 73 from Haryana and 42 from Himachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the states of Assam had 18, Chandigarh had 11, Chhattisgarh had 12, Goa had 20, Kerala had 50, Manipur had 23, Uttrakhand had 28 PG medical seats vacant.

Meghalaya had only 6 seats left followed by Tripura and Sikkim with 4 and 3 seats respectively.

There were no states with full allotment this academic session of 2019-20.

For BDS Course:

3317 BDS seats were lying vacant in the year 2018-19. The maximum coming down to 578 from MP followed by UP with 564 and Tamil Nadu with 484 BDS seats lying vacant.

320 seats left unfilled from Karnataka dropping down to 279 from Haryana, 224 from Rajasthan, 190 from Punjab, 145 from Gujarat and 107 from Chhattisgarh.

89 seats are reported to have had been vacant from Puducherry followed by 82 from Jharkhand, 60 from Andhra Pradesh, 46 each from Bihar and Maharashtra.

The list goes down to Daman & DIU with 31 vacant UG Dental seats that year followed by JnK with 22, Himachal with 19, Uttarakhand and Assam with 11 each, Telangana with 4 seats and Kerala with 2.

Only 1 seat each was left from the states of Manipur, Odisha and West Bengal. No seats were vacant from Goa, Delhi and Chandigarh.

The next academic session saw a decrease in the number of vacant seats with a total of 2774.

The maximum seats were vacant from the state of UP with 528 followed by MP with 329, Punjab with 324 and Karnataka with 321 BDS seats.

The list then followed by Haryana with 206, Maharashtra with 155, Gujarat with 126, Tamil Nadu with 121, Chhattisgarh with 114, Rajasthan with 104 vacant BDS seats.

67 seats were vacant at Assam, 62 at Odisha, 43 at Puducherry, 32 at Uttrakhand, 29 at Daman and Diu, 21 at Telangana that year.

Andhra Pradesh and Bihar had 15 seats each unfilled that session. Delhi had 14 seats lying vacant.

JnK had Kerala had 3 seats vacant each while Chandigarh and West Bengal had only 1 seat left. No seats were lect from Goa and Manipur.

As per the provisions of the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education and Post Graduate Medical Education,the Common Counseling for admission to Central Educational Institutions, All India Quota seats in Government Medical Colleges and Deemed Universities is conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and the respective State Government conducts Common Counseling for admission to State Quota seats in Government Medical College and all the seats of Private Medical Colleges.

The minister further replying to the question of whether large numbers of seats in PG/ MBBS/BDS courses in Government/ Private colleges/Deemed Universities are left vacant across India especially in the State of Punjab this year due to the high fee structure allowed by the Government, informed, "in the case of Government medical colleges, the respective State Governments are responsible for fixation of fee, and in the case of private unaided medical colleges, the fee structure is decided by the Committee set up by the respective State Government under the Chairmanship of a retired High Court Judge in pursuance of the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India."

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has been constituted with effect from 25th September 2020. The NMC Act, 2019 empowers the NMC to frame guidelines for the determination of fees and all other charges in respect of 50% of seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be Universities. The uniform entrance examination namely the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Common Counseling for admission to all UnderGraduate and PostGraduate medical courses across the country ensures transparent admissions on merit, he added.

On the steps proposed by the Government to help the economically weaker sections of society so that they are not deprived of higher education in medical profession, he said, "In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, there is 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Section of the Society (EWS) in UG and PG medical/dental courses."