Treat AIPMT as phase 1 of NEET, health ministry likely to tell SC

TOI 

NEW DELHI: Students aspiring for admission into medical colleges are likely to face a common medical entrance test this year itself but in a phased manner.

In its tentative schedule to be presented to the Supreme Court on Thursday, the health ministry is likely to suggest that the All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test, 2016 (AIPMT) slated for May 1 be treated as Phase I of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).

The Phase II of NEET can be conducted in mid-July for the rest of the candidates, who have not applied for AIPMT this year, official sources told TOI. However, apart from AIPMT, a slew of medical entrance tests slated to happen over the next couple of months are expected to be scrapped in the light of the SC directive.

"We have worked out a tentative schedule which will be submitted to the SC. Since it is too late to conduct a fresh test, we will suggest that All India PMT be treated as Phase 1 of NEET and a second phase can be conducted separately for those who have not applied for AIPMT," said an official.

he move comes in the wake of the apex court insisting on Wednesday that multiple entrance tests must be done away with and NEET must be conducted for 2016-17 session. It directed the Centre, Medical Council of India (MCI) and CBSE to sit together and frame a time-schedule for conducting NEET. It directed them to place before it by Thursday a dateline for the common entrance test.

Following the apex court's directive, senior officials from the health ministry, MCI and CBSE brainstormed on the issue for more than two hours to finally arrive at the tentative schedule, the official said.