Several seats left out from NEET PG Counselling, Maharashtra students demand cancellation of First Round

Mumbai: Upset with the recent announcement by Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell of excluding around 400 seats from the counselling, the PG medical aspirants in Maharashtra are demanding cancellation of the first round of NEET PG Counselling.

Aggrieved by the decision of Maharashtra CET cell, already the candidates and their parents have sent mass emails and letters to the authorities. One of the letters sent by the candidates was quoted stating by Indian Express, "Students have felt cheated and have doubts about fraud being played on them by authorities with hidden agenda of trying to fill seats in deemed and all-India quota first with high scorers by creating such artificial shortage of approved seats. It looks like it's a ploy so state seats can be allocated to favour lower-scorers, once the round one cut-off date to withdraw seats ends on October 10."

The students have sent the letters and other communications to the Commissioner of CET Cell, Directorate of Education and Research (DMER), and Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan.

This comes after the recent notice dated 04.10.2022, issued by the Maharashtra CET cell. Informing the candidates about the exclusion of seats from first round, the CET cell stated, "As per the NEET-PG 2022 Information Brochure, Clause No. 15.2, "Seat distribution is subject to change as per instruction of NMC/ erstwhile MCI/ transfer of PG teacher/ affiliation from University (MUHS) etc". NEET PG-2022 seat matrix was declared on 30/09/2022."

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"There are some seats, for which some of the necessary permissions are awaited and hence they are not included in the first round of allotment. These seats will be considered during subsequent round of allotment once all the necessary permissions are received," read the notice issued by the Commissioner and Competent Authority, Maharashtra CET cell.

As per the latest media report by Indian Express, the students have questioned the explanation given by the Maharashtra CET Cell. They pointed out that most of these seats belong to the Government medical colleges with prior approvals. 

Meanwhile, commenting on the issue, the Commissioner of the Maharashtra CET Cell Mahendra Warbhuvan told the daily, "Medical PG admissions will continue as per schedule. The letter does not change anything." When asked about reduction of altogether 400 seats that are going to be added in the second round of counselling, Warbhuvan added, "There is no clarity about it yet."

Also Read: Maharashtra NEET PG Admissions: 17 percent Increase In Number Of Seats This Academic Year