Maharashtra: Despite NMC Direction, CET Cell Conducts Stray-Vacancy Round at Institute Level, MBBS aspirants cry foul

Mumbai: Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell's decision to hold an institute-level stray-vacancy round for the vacant seats in private medical colleges has now resulted in a controversy as several candidates have alleged that some of the private medical institutes denied them admission in the final institute-level stray vacancy round.

While several candidates have claimed that students with much lower scores were granted admission in their place, medical education counsellors have also criticised the State's decision of holding an institute-level stray vacancy round as they pointed out that it ultimately allowed the medical colleges to fill up the vacant seats with their favoured candidates.

The decision to hold an institute-level stray vacancy round also contradicts the earlier directions given by the National Medical Commission (NMC) in this regard. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that with an aim to put an end to the issue of seat blocking in medical colleges, the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of NMC clarified that the counseling agencies in the State and the Centre will fill up the seats in all the medical institutes through online counselling.

Clarifying that the mode of counselling will be online even for the stray vacany round in Private Medical Colleges from this academic year, NMC PG Board further mentioned that no college/institute should conduct the counselling, including the stray vacancy round, in physical mode.

Referring to the Supreme Court order issued in this regard last year, NMC also issued a circular to the Principal Secretary of Health of all States/UTs and the Director of Directorate of Medical Education of all States/UTs/Medical Counselling Authority.

"As per the Orders of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in I.A. No. 132614/2022 in WP(C) 267/2017, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of DGHS, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare shall conduct Online Counselling for stray vacancy round for 100% seats in Deemed Universities in UG & PG courses," NMC mentioned.

"All the State Counselling Agencies are requested to make necessary arrangement for conducting the counselling in online mode, for all rounds including stray vacancy round in Private Medical Colleges, from the academic year 2023-24. No College/Institute should conduct the counselling, including the stray vacancy round, in physical mode," further stated in the circular issued by Aujender Singh, Deputy Secretary of PGMEB.

However, despite the earlier directions issued by NMC, the Maharashtra State CET Cell on September 26, 2023, issued a notice to conduct the stray vacancy Round-2.

Also Read: MBBS Admissions 2023: Maha CET Cell Announces Schedule For Stray Vacancy, Institutional Level Rounds, know provisional seat matrix details

"The seats remaining vacant in Government/Govt. aided/Corporation Medical Colleges will be filled by Online Stray Vacancy round(s) as per the schedule given in Table 1, Whereas the seat remaining vacant in Private unaided Medical Colleges will be filled at Institute level as per the schedule given in Table 2," the CET cell mentioned in the notice.

Previously, issuing a notice on September 18, 2023, the CET Cell had announced its decision of conducting Online Stray Vacancy Round(s) to fill the seats remain vacant after round - 3. However, this was later cancelled and in the notice dated 26.09.2023, the CET cell mentioned, "In view of the above referred letter from Medical Education and Drugs Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. The Online Stray Vacancy Round -2 declared as per the Notice No.09 dated 18/09/2023 stands Cancelled."

Announcing its decision to hold institute-level stray vacancy round, the CET Cell had directed the eligible desirous candidates to apply via Online mode i.e. through email only to the respective colleges in the prescribed format separately for State Quota and Institutional Quota. Along with the notice, the official email IDs of the concerned colleges were also included.

The candidates were supposed to confirm their admission by physically visiting the college and the State had appointed 'observers' at the college in order to make sure that there was transparency in the entire process, adds FPJ.

However, several candidates have now alleged that they were denied admission by private medical colleges at the institute-level counselling, while several candidates with lower marks have been admitted.

As per the latest media report by the Free Press Journal, a student who had applied at SSPM College, Sindhudurg, complained that the college refused admission to her despite including her in the selection list. She told the Daily, “After verifying my documents, a selection list was displayed which had my name. However, later in the evening, the college authorities asked us to pay ₹10 lakh, which we couldn't. When the final selection list was out, I didn't find my name in it. However, it had another student in the same caste category with much lower marks.”

The Daily adds that those who run the concerned medical college, claimed that the students lost their seats because of the deficiencies present in their documents.

Meanwhile, another candidate seeking admission at Vedanta Institute, Palghar has alleged that when he reported to the college on Saturday, he was stopped at the gate and told that all the seats had been filled. He told the Daily, “When the final selection list was released, I found candidates with lower scores than me in it.”

Amid such allegations by the medical aspirants, medical counsellors have alleged that the decision of the State to hold institute-level counselling has allowed the medical colleges to fill up the seats with the candidates favored by them.

Commenting on this, Muzaffar Khan, a Thane-based counsellor told FPJ, “Medical admissions have always been riddled with fraud. There was no reason to change the process. The state could have done the counselling process centrally instead of handing it over to the institutes.”

The Daily adds that despite holding an institute-level stray vacancy round, 19 out of 7,324 undergraduate medical seats on offer at government and private medical colleges have been left vacant.

Also Read: MBBS, BDS admissions 2023: Maha CET Cell Releases Schedule For Stray Vacancy Round, Details