Chaos reigns as 1,500 medical students clamour for 90 seats

MUMBAI: The last day of admissions to medical and dental institutes in the state for the upcoming academic year remained as chaotic as the day one. Hundreds of students

MUMBAI: The last day of admissions to medical and dental institutes in the state for the upcoming academic year remained as chaotic as the day one. Hundreds of students and their parents gathered at the Grant Medical College, attached to the Sir JJ Hospital, on Friday to claim 90 seats (40 medical and 50 dental courses) scattered across various government medical colleges in Maharashtra.

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According to officials from JJ Hospital, about 1,500 applicants had gathered on the hospital premises to try their luck at bagging the last few government seats. The chaos, said government officials, worsened due to a ruling passed by the Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad bench ordering a stay on the Friday’s admissions. However, it was lifted in within two hours.

“We received a message at 12:30pm to stop admissions following an order by the Aurangabad bench. Parents and students who had gathered in large numbers panicked,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER).

He added the court order was based on a petition filed by some students in Aurangabad seeking more time to complete the admission process, as it was ‘impossible’ for students from some parts of Maharashtra to reach Mumbai for admissions on Friday.

“The court lifted the ban by 2:30pm, following which we restarted the admission process and continued allotting seats to students on the basis of merit,” Shingare said.

Some of the parents also objected to the state’s decision of keeping the last round of admissions open to all.

“These seats should have been allotted on the basis of domicile,” said A Kannan, a parent.

But Shingare countered the argument stating that the said these seats were those that remained unoccupied from the All India Quota (AIQ) and therefore they were open to all.