MCC NEET Counselling 2023: DGHS Allows MBBS candidates to Upgrade Choices up to Round 3

Mumbai: Introducing major relief to the medical aspirants across the country, who want to get admitted to the MBBS course, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), operative under the Central Government, has decided to allow students upgrade their choice of colleges up to the third round of the NEET-UG counselling.

With this, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), under DGHS, has modified the rules that allowed candidates upgradation of choices only till round two. This rule was in place since the year 2018.

The new rule will allow students, who were stuck with the allotted seats in the second round and did not get a chance to try for better seats even if better seats were available in round three, to upgrade their choices if they are not satisfied with their allotment. Previously, the third round was open only for those MBBS candidates who did not have any seats.

However, the modified rule has a new condition for the MBBS aspirants. If the students do not join the seats allotted to them in the second or third round, they will lose the refundable deposit amount. This amount is Rs 10,000 for the all-India quota seats and central institutes and Rs 2 lakh for deemed universities.

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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the parents of medical aspirants have welcomed the move as they opined that it would act as a deterrent for students who block seats unnecessarily. Commenting on the new rule, an official from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the Daily, "The earlier policy, which was in practice for five years, has been withdrawn to give students the benefit of the third round, also called the mop-up round. This is also to ensure that meritorious students do not lose out on a seat of their choice."

NEET-UG Counselling process for admissions to the 15% all-India quota seats, deemed and central universities, and all AIIMS and JIPMER, will begin from Thursday. MCC has the charge of conducting altogether four admission rounds. MCC announced the admission rules in the brochure that was released for admissions in the all-India quota seats on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, DGHS has also mentioned that the students will be debarred from participating in the NEET-UG admission process for two years and they will also lose their deposit money if they do not join the seats allotted to them in the stray round (fourth and final one).

Welcoming the changes a parent pointed out that these modified rules will bring relief to the students as many a times, seats remain vacant even in top government medical colleges after two rounds. "With no chance to upgrade, meritorious students were deprived from choosing these seats and students with lower merit ranks were getting the benefit," said the parent.

Commenting on this, parent representative Sudha Shenoy told TOI, "Now, the students can not only upgrade their choices for the third round, but the ones without seats can also register afresh for the stray round."

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