Revision of Cutoff in NEET PG 2021 Counselling: FAIMA Resubmits letter to Health Ministry

Although earlier FAIMA had approached the Ministry regarding this issue, nothing has happened in this direction yet. So, the association met the Health Ministry officials again and resubmitted its demands.

Dr. Rohan Krishnan, the president of FAIMA has informed Medical Dialogues that they have received positive response from the Government and they are hopeful for the revision in the cut-off marks.

"This is to bring to your notice that a lot of MBBS pass outs and interns are currently aspiring to join Postgraduate courses. Every year, as per data available large number of seats including clinical, paraclinical as well as non-clinical remain vacant for very reason that enough candidates above the Cut Off do not opt for them," FAIMA mentioned in its letter.

"The country is passing through a grave medical emergency & cannot afford any vacancies in this field. Challenging times deserve innovative measures," it added.

Also Read: Revise cutoff Score for NEET PG counselling Mop-up Round: Doctors write to Union Health Minister

Referring to the possibility that many candidates unsatisfied with the NEET PG results will reappear for the exam, FAIMA stated in the letter, "As you are aware that, this year there have been many changes in the counseling process. Usually NEET PG exam is held after a gap of 9-10 months approximately. But this year even the NEET PG 2022 exam is going to be held with very less time gap i.e. 12^th March 2022 along with counseling of NEET PG 2021. Due to this many candidates unsatisfied with result will take another attempt for improvement ultimately will result in wastage of seats."

"We request you to kindly revise the qualifying score in mopup adequately so that all seats including basic subjects are filled in States as well AIQ counselling," the letter added.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the issue, Dr. Rohan Krishnan, president of FAIMA referred to the huge vacancies in the non-clinical subjects and said, "Post COVID, the branches which used to be considered less popular have become popular nowadays. The ministry also understands the seriousness of these non-clinical subjects and they also want these seats to get filled. Usually, who is opting for a clinical seat doesn't want to go there. On the other hand, those who wish to pursue those subjects, lack the exact amount of percentile which is mandatory for being eligible. Ultimately, this results in a situation where thousands of PG medical seats remain vacant every year."

"Previously also we had written to the Ministry regarding this matter and at that time only half of our demands had been fulfilled i.e. the extension of the date of NEET PG 2022 exam. However, regarding the revision of the eligibility criteria for 2021 counselling, the demands are yet to be fulfilled," he added.

"So, we resubmitted the letter after meeting the Health Ministry officials and requested them to reduce the bar for cut-off marks. They have given positive responses to us regarding this and mostly we hope that the cut-off will be reduced and maximum students will be participating in the counselling," he further mentioned.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had also written to the Union Health Minister and requested him to allow all candidates who appeared in the NEET-PG exam to participate in the mop-up counselling and stray vacancy round without any cut-off constraints.

These candidates have otherwise passed their graduation exams and thus fulfill the basic eligibility criteria, the IMA had said.

''It would be really criminal if all post-graduation seats are not filled even in an emergency situation. This is a humble request from the Indian Medical Association to increase the workforce of available doctors,'' IMA had pointed out.