NEET aspirants worried over overlapping of exam with counselling

 NEET aspirants worried over overlapping of exam with counselling

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c-Puniti.Pandey@timesgroup.com

23.01.2022

While the counselling process of the much-awaited NEET PG has started recently, many MBBS doctors who were to appear for the counselling are in a fix. The PG aspirants are upset over the clash of dates for PG counselling and NEET PG exams.

The counselling dates for NEET-PG 2021 were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and court hearings over the OBC and EWS quota issue. The NEET PG exam is scheduled for March 12, 2022. The issue lies with the date getting overlapped with the ongoing counselling of NEET PG 2021, which will end by March 16, 2022.

“The situation is becoming difficult for the borderline rank holders who are uncertain about securing a seat this year since their ranks are in the hanging line. These students are worried about whether to appear for the counselling process or sit for the NEET PG on March 12,” says Dr Chinmayee Gowda, Women Wing incharge Federation of all India Medical associations, State Vice President, NSUI Karnataka.

“For NEET MDS, the examination got postponed by three months because their counselling procedures were not over in December 2021. So why is our concern not dealt with, in the same manner,” she questions.

“Many students who got ranks between 20,00050,000 have enrolled into NEET PG counselling 2021 hoping for a seat in their de-sired branch. But now the National Board of Examination (NBE) announced NEET PG 2022 exam even before the completion of the counselling process of the previous year. The final day for NEET PG 2022 registration is February 5 and our second round counselling results will be out on February 12. This will force a large number of students to register for NEET PG 2022 and pay for both counselling and NEET PG registration,” says Dr Madhu R, Intern, AJ Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Karnataka.

More than 8000 interns are not eligible to write the NEET PG 2022 as their final exams were postponed due to Covid and the internships started late. “My internship was postponed and it started last year in October. This does not fulfil the 10-month compulsory internship criteria that a student is required to appear for NEET PG 2022. I will not be able to attempt the NEET PG 2022 with no fault of mine. The uncertainty of next year's PG curriculum just adds to this anxiety," says Dr Aman Sinha, Intern, Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Bhagalpur.

From 2023, NBEMS is planning to replace the NEET PG with NEXT which has a completely different approach. NEET PG 2022 is essentially the last NEET for postgraduate students. Stealing this opportunity from the PG aspirants is not fair idea, says an MBBS student from CU Shah Medical College and Hospital, Gujarat.