Saturday, June 6, 2015

Chaos in medical PG counselling, government scraps process

CHENNAI: The state health department has scrapped the postgraduate medical counselling process that was held over the past three days, following allegations of discrepancies and lack of transparency.

A fresh phase of counselling will be held over the weekend.

More than 6,000 MBBS graduates aspiring to pursue a PG degree were vying for 800 seats available in the third phase of counselling held over three days since June 2.

Out of the total 1,200 PG seats available, Tamil Nadu was left with 600 seats after surrendering the other half to the All India Quota, along with the 100 seats surrendered by private medical colleges and 100 All India quota seats that fell into the common pool.

More than 12,000 candidates had appeared for the entrance out of which 6,000 were eligible to attend counselling.

Several candidates alleged lack of transparency. "Vacancies in different specialities were not revealed until the last minute. When the seats were finally displayed, it was allotted to candidates who were not eligible," said an applicant.

The doctor explained that MD seats in dermatology were displayed on the second day of counselling, and one of the seats was given to an "ineligible" candidate who was related to a politician.

"Limited seats that were available in some specialities were casually allotted to candidates in the same community while the deserving ones were skipped," he said.

Another candidate alleged that the coordinators at the venue did not give satisfactory replies when asked about the discrepancies and the students were asked to leave the premises. "We had to approach the health secretary," he said.

Extending support to the candidates, Doctors' Association for Social Equality general secretary Dr G R Ravindranath said the state government should order an investigation into the irregularities that took place in the counselling.

A senior health official said the counselling process was held with transparency and since candidates expressed their complaints, the directorate of medical education has decided to conduct fresh counselling.

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