324 NRI Quota Applications rejected by KEA for NEET PG admissions 2024
Karnataka- In the admission process of National Eligibility and Entrance Test-Postgraduate (NEET PG) for the academic year 2024, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) has rejected 324 applications for the NRI (Non-Resident Indian) quota, which is double compared to last year.
According to the data, KEA received 1,090 applications for NRI seats for NEET PG admissions 2024, which is 91 more than last year. Of these, 766 applications for NRI seats were accepted and 324 were rejected. Last year at the same time, 850 were accepted and 149 were rejected.
The reason behind rejecting such a large number of applications is the stringent scrutiny adopted by the KEA following reports of a scam in the allocation of NRI seats in Tamil Nadu. Significantly, verification conducted by the selection committee at the Directorate of Medical Education in Tamil Nadu found that at least 44 doctors had forged their certificates in their applications for PG medical courses.
In this regard, speaking to the TOI, the KEA executive director, H Prasanna said “As per the Supreme Court rulings, it should be up to first-degree relation. However many of the applications that were submitted had only distant relations with the sponsor, resulting in their rejection. We also wrote to various embassies asking about the genuineness of the certificates, but we are yet to receive any reply from them”.
The Director further added, “When the news about our stringent scrutiny came out, many candidates approached us and asked us to consider their applications under the general category”.
Meanwhile, KEA is also planning to propose to the government to change the rules for the NRI category. On this, Prasanna said, “We will propose that fees should be taken in dollars. Now, the fees are transferred from the student account. We do not know whether it is truly sponsored by any NRI. They could have come from anybody and not necessarily from the sponsor”.
