NEET MDS 2024: FAIMA Urges Health Minister to Postpone Exam, extend BDS internship deadline
New Delhi: Taking up the issues being faced by the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) MDS candidates, the doctors under the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) recently wrote to the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and urged to postpone the exam, scheduled to be conducted on 18th March 2024.
Apart from requesting the Health Minister to postpone the exam to July, FAIMA has also urged the authorities to extend the deadline for completion of BDS Internship to August 31, 2024.
The association highlighted that almost 4607 undergraduate dental students are ineligible to appear in the NEET MDS exam due to the internship cut-off date issued by the National Board of Examinations (NBE).
"These students served the nation during the COVID19 pandemic compromising their professional years and ended up having delays in their internship completions. It is also seen that with the current exam date being 18th March 2024 for NEET MDS, with so many confusions about the scheduled exam, the students will not be able to perform well in their exams," the association mentioned in the letter directed to the Union Health Minister.
"Considering the above facts and issues being faced by the dental students of our country we humbly request you to postpone the NEET MDS 2024 exam to a later date preferably in July 2024, so that there shall not be any injustice done to the dentists/doctors who served the nation during the most crucial times of COVID 19 pandemic. This is because there shall be a maximum number of students becoming eligible for the exams including those who are left ineligible due to current rules set by NBE regarding internship completion and shall serve the country," it added. The association has urged the Minister to re-schedule the NEET-MDS to accommodate maximum aspirants for examination.
Also Read: Doctors Meet Health Ministry Officials, Urge to Defer NEET MDS 2024
Although the NEET MDS 2024 examination is scheduled to be conducted on March 18, 2024 by the National Board of Examinations (NBE), the NEET MDS aspirants have been demanding the postponement of the exam to July. Taking to social media, they have highlighted that even if the exam is conducted in March, the counselling would not commence soon.
According to the MDS aspirants, the counselling process for the NEET PG examination and NEET MDS are always conducted together. Therefore, with the NEET PG getting postponed to July, it is unlikely that NEET MDS counselling would be held anytime soon. Terming it to be an "injustice", the aspirants have been demanding that the NEET MDS exam also get postponed till July.
The issue of eligibility criteria is also a matter of concern for thousands of MDS aspirants and the same issue was recently raised before the Supreme Court also.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that several MDS aspirants recently approached the Supreme Court seeking legal help in the matter. During the hearing of the plea seeking postponement of the NEET MDS 2024 exam, the Union Government informed the Supreme Court bench that it was looking into the grievances of the candidates regarding the extension of the internship deadline.
Considering this submission, the Apex Court bench did not pass any order on the plea seeking to postpone the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for the Master in Dental Surgery course (NEET-MDS) 2024 exam and demanding an extension of the internship completion deadline.
Recently while responding to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by All India Students' Union (AISU), the Union Health Ministry informed the representations for the postponement of the NEET MDS examination are "under process".
Meanwhile, recently, the Dental Council of India (DCI) issued a notice and announced that the counselling session will be held separately for NEET MDS 2024 before NEET PG Medical Counselling.
The DCI notice stated, "It is hereby informed to all MDS aspirants that the Govt. of India may conduct the counselling session for NEET-MDS 2024 separately and before NEET PG Medical Counselling."
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