MD Radiology for Rs 1 crore, MBBS for 65 lakhs: Newspaper Ad in Maha shares shocking rate card for low NEET score aspirants
Indian Chest Society Criticises NMC Decision to Remove Respiratory Medicine Departments
New Delhi: Amid the ongoing controversy concerning the National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS and Postgraduate medical courses, a bizarre advertisement offering medical seats to low NEET-scoring candidates has been circulating on social media platforms.
The advertisement was made by a Maharashtra-based medical consultancy, which offered an MBBS seat to medical aspirants for Rs 65 lakh, and listed the rate chart for admission to different PG medical courses.
"Grab your seats with low NEET PG/UG score," the headline of the advertisement, which was published in a Newspaper, stated.
"Take control of your future and your Career. Find the cheapest packages for your medical journey," the photograph of the newspaper ad that was shared on X (formerly Twitter) further said.
The consultancy in question announced in the viral advertisement about different packages for admission to various UG and PG medical courses. Among the PG courses, it offered MD Radiology seats for Rs 1 crore, MD Dermatology seats for Rs 95 lakhs, MD Gen. Medicine seats for Rs 90 lakhs, MD Paediatric seats for Rs 90 lakh, MD Pulmonology seats for Rs 80 lakh, MD Psychiatry seats for Rs 85 lakh, MD Anaesthesia seats for Rs 70 lakhs, MD Pathology seats for Rs 50 lakhs, MD Anatomy seats for Rs 90 lakhs, MS General Surgery seats for Rs 80 lakhs, MS Orthopaedics seats for Rs 90 lakhs, MS Ob-Gyn for Rs 95 lakhs, MS ENT seats for Rs 80 lakhs, and MS Ophthalmology seats for Rs 80 lakh.
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The Consultancy offered to provide various kinds of services such as form filling and submission, expert admission assistance, special documents assistance, regular counselling updates, college visit assistance, monitoring of all rounds, tracking of cancellation seats. It also asked the interested candidates to contact for free counselling, registration and all admission-related procedures.
Responding to the X post, some of the users expressed their shock at such an open instance of the sale of medical seats. "How can they sale the seats and publish in Newspaper. And unfortunetly no action from states and central agencies," wrote one user.
"Just 65?? Low caste people can save that much money since they can get seats using reservations with poor scores. General category ppl even after good scores suffer with seat business on one side and reservations on the other," wrote another user mocking the system.
Some of the users were confused about the advertisement. "Is this just for getting the seats or for course as well? Asking since this is an ad by a consultancy service," wrote such an user.
This advertisement has gone viral at a time when the whole country is witnessing one after another controversy regarding the NEET UG and PG examinations this year.
NEET Controversy:
Medical Dialogues has been reporting about the NEET UG 2024 paper leak controversies. The allegations of paper leak first came to light in Bihar. Around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.
Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.
Multiple pleas have been filed before the High Courts and the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the alleged paper leak scam. Some of the pleas demanded the scrapping of the NEET UG 2024 exam and holding a retest.
Questions were also raised against the National Testing Agency's policy of granting grace marks to 1563 candidates to compensate for their loss of time. However, later NTA withdrew the grace marks and held an optional retest for these candidates. The candidates who did appear in the retest would retain their original marks (without the grace marks).
Meanwhile, the Central Government on June 22, 2024, handed over the charge of investigation in the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG 2024 examination to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"Certain cases of alleged irregularities / cheating / impersonation / malpractices have been reported. For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India after a review has decided to entrust the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for comprehensive investigation," the Ministry of Education stated in a release.
Also Read: NEET 2024: SC adjourns plea alleging NTA officers involvement in manipulating OMR Sheets
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