PG medical seats may be wasted due to legal tangle

Chennai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Although the directorate of medical education has managed to get more than 250 additional postgraduate seats for state-run medical colleges, officials say several seats may be wasted as counselling has been delayed due to legal tangles.

This year, the selection committee has recorded more than 1,481 seats in 13 medical colleges including 686 MD seats and 399 MS seats besides 396 postgraduate diploma seats. After surrendering the all-India quota, the committee has put out 756 seats including 556 PG degrees for domiciliary quota. “We have to fill all the seats before May 31. Otherwise, the seats will be wasted,“ said selection committee secretary G Selvaraju, who is in charge of conducting counselling.

Counselling for government and self-financing colleges takes about two weeks. Unlike previous years, this year the directorate will conduct counselling for private colleges and deemed universities as well. In addition, there may be unoccupied seats returned by the Centre from its quota for which separate counselling will be conducted. “This year, counselling will take longer because we have to do it for all colleges in the state.When some students don't jo in in allotted colleges, the seats are filled in the next phase usually . This year, we may not have time for that,“ he said.

The counselling, which was scheduled to begin in the first week of April, was initially delayed after a few candidates moved the court against the new Medical Council of India rules which radically altered the award of incentives to in-service candidates. It was further compounded by the April 17 order of a single judge of the Madras high court upholding the MCI norms.

The government put the process on hold after doctors' bodies announced a series of strikes.“We want the government to follow the procedure they have followed so far,“ said Dr Rubesh Kumar of the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association.