Medical seats: 400 quota forms rejected in Maharashtra

Officials told HT their forms were rejected as candidates could not present proof of state domicile for admissions under the quota

The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has rejected applications of 400 candidates who applied for medical and dental admissions under the state quota in government-run and private colleges.

Close to 50,400 students filled choice forms for admissions Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) will conduct. (For representation)

Officials told HT their forms were rejected as candidates could not present proof of state domicile for admissions under the quota.

“Close to 50,400 students filled choice forms for admissions DMER will conduct. Of these, we called 15,000 students to verify documents and 400 of them could not provide the appropriate documents. We had to reject their applications,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, director, DMER.

Shingare said the documents of the 35,000 others will be verified by colleges at the time of admission.

The original admission schedule released by DMER in June said document verification of registered students would be done between July 14 and July 24. After this, students were to fill online choice forms. But an updated schedule was released 10 days ago, after the Medical Council of India (MCI) requesting uniformity in medical and dental admissions across the country. DMER too introduced changes and has decided to release the first seat allotment list on July 25 instead.

While parents were happy a final verification will be conducted before confirming admissions, many were worried this would end up affecting the admissions cycle. “ DMER will conduct three rounds of admissions, and if institutes cancel admissions owing to lack of documents once the process begins, the vacant seats will have to be allotted in the next round,” said a parent.