Govt doctors may bag most of PG seats with incentive marks

A Subramani

Chennai:





`80% of 3,000 Seats Will Go To Them' 

 

The protracted legal wrangle over admission procedure for postgraduate medical courses in Tamil Nadu has ended up in an unintended windfall for doctors in government service aspiring to study PG courses. Ironically, it was these in-service candidates who saw red in the Medical Council of India's (MCI) regulations and spearheaded a fight ­ both inside and outside court rooms.

“At least 80% of the 3,000odd PG seats would go to inservice candidates eligible to claim incentive marks as stipulated in Regulations 9(4) of the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000,“ said a senior counsel privy to the legal battle. Non-service candidates, ho chose to remain silent who chose to remain silent spectators will be the worsthit, since they would get into the zone of consideration only if they score high without any incentive marks, he said.

Now that a tie-breaker judge, to whom the case was referred after a division bench delivered a split verdict, sailed with a judge who held state norms for PG medical admissions were untenable, the 50% quota for government doctors stands abolished. In effect, while the 50% reservation is gone, the incentive marks scheme for doctors in remote and difficult areas has survived. In other words, it can now be applied for the entire government quota seats, and not restricted to 50% reserved for in-service candidates alone.

Since MCI regulations contemplate award of upto 30% of a candidate's NEETPG marks as incentive, everyone with three years service in designated places will automatically be richer by 30% marks than non-service candidates. There is a hitch though. Incentive marks can be applied only if the candidate concerned clears NEET-PG by scoring the minimum required mark, and cannot be used to clear NEET-PG.

Unless a government doctor in remote and difficult areas fails to score minimum marks, nothing can stop him her from bagging a PG medical seat, say jurists. “At least a few hundred government doctors in this category would score the maximum mark of 1,500 this time. If the candidate scores 1,270 marks in NEET-PG, his total would go beyond the maximum mark, thanks to 30% weightage for his service in remote and difficult area,“ said a senior advocate.

Now that the high court has made it clear that it would not interfere with the state government's right to define the notified areas and public health centres in order to bring them under the eligibility bracket for incentive marks, government might name specific hospitals in city limits as `difficult'. For instance, an area like KK Nagar in Chennai could be defined as `difficult' as it witnesses intimidation and assault of doctors frequently . The government general hospital too could be termed difficult, for its sheer size of patient population, he said. As of now, this year's PG medical admissions will have a single merit list, but only in-service candidates will have the benefit of incentiveweightage marks.