NEET-UG: Medical aspirants upset with second mop-up round to fill up 323 vacant seats

Medical candidates, who have scored high marks in NEET-UG and could not bag a seat in government medical institutes, are now upset over students with lower scores getting vacant ones

Mumbai A day after the medical counselling committee announced an extra mop-up round to fill up the remaining 323 vacant seats in the all-India quota (AIQ) across government and private medical colleges, several aspirants and parents have raised objections.

Of these 323 seats, 38 belong to some coveted government medical colleges in Maharashtra including four seats in Nair, three seats in JJ, five seats in Cooper and five in B J Medical College (HT PHOTO)

Candidates, who have scored high marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) and could not bag a seat in government medical institutes, are now upset over students with lower scores getting the seats.

“I have scored 600 out of 720 and had to take admission in a private medical college because seats in government medical colleges were beyond reach in Mumbai. Now, seats from AIQ will go to students who scored 590 or below because the rest of us have already secured admissions. How is this fair?” asked a student.

Of these 323 seats, 38 belong to some coveted government medical colleges in Maharashtra including four seats in Nair, three seats in JJ, five seats in Cooper and five in B J Medical College.

“My daughter was trying very hard for a seat in a medical college and finally opted for a seat in a dental college in the latest mop-up round. She just completed her admission process, so now can she surrender this seat and apply for admissions in the new AIQ mop-up round? We need MCC to give us clarity in this matter,” said a parent.

AIQ rounds are conducted to fill up 15% seats in government and private UG medical institutes and 50% seats in government and private PG medical institutes.

As per rule, AIQ and state admission rounds should be conducted simultaneously because vacant seats in AIQ post the second round were surrendered to respective states for state quota rounds, conducted by competent authority.

As per a notification of MCC dated December 18, 2021, starting 2021-22 academic year, four AIQ rounds will be conducted--AIQ 1, AIQ 2, mop-up round 1 and stray vacancy round. “Fresh registration of candidates will be allowed in round 1, 2 and mop-up round. There will be no fresh registrations for candidates in AIQ stray vacancy round,” stated the notification.

Implementation of this rule has been a big blow to medical aspirants in states with a high number of government medical institutes like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Every year, at least 200-250 AIQ seats would be surrendered to state quota and was approachable for students. As per a fresh notification shared by MCC on April 18, already registered students can resubmit a preference list based on the seat vacancy, and pay ₹50,000 each to be eligible for this round.

“Most of these seats will go to students from other states, where they could not get admissions due to fewer colleges in their respective states. In the end, students from states like Maharashtra are losing out on seats in coveted colleges, which is unfair. We are garnering support from the next batch of MBBS aspirants and taking this matter to the Supreme Court, hoping that this AIQ admission rule is revoked and the process goes back to what it was till recently,” said another parent.