Over 240 doctors debarred from NEET PG exam The MCC has collected a seat-leaving penalty of Rs 1.21 crore from these medical students

Over 240 doctors debarred from NEET PG exam The MCC has collected a seat-leaving penalty of Rs 1.21 crore from these medical students

 Shuddhanta.Patra@timesgroup.com 25.03.2024 

A total of 242 doctors who left their seats in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2023 counselling have been debarred from appearing in the upcoming NEET PG 2024 exam, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) stated. The MCC’s statement came as a response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by RTI activist Dr Vivek Pandey. The debarred students are planning to file a PIL to reinstate the opportunity to appear for the NEET exam scheduled in June.

 Speaking to Education Times, a Health Ministry official says, “The MCC rule to disqualify such students has brought down the medical seat wastage under 300 which earlier used to range between 1,000-1,500. These 242 seats will lie vacant for the next three years and each medical seat costs crores of rupees to the government. The seats are blocked as per the candidate’s preference. Despite choosing the seat themselves, when a candidate is giving it up, they are not just giving up their chance to study in that particular medical stream but also not giving a fair chance to other candidates who need the seat. 

Candidates must choose the seats wisely.” Dr Aviral Mathur, president, FORDA, says, “There must be some penalty for students flouting MCC rules but that must not go against the careers of the young doctors. These are the candidates blocking the seats as per their preferences, later changing their minds and not report to the allotted college. They are eventually wiping out the chances for the students who need those seats. The Committee must also rethink the steps considering debarring the students from counselling. The students who are complaining about losing a year must have thought about the outcome before blocking the seats. However, the MCC must contemplate reasonable penalties like increasing the seat-leaving fine or cancelling the candidate’s state quota.” Students’ woes Dr Vivek Pandey says, “A few students approached me regarding this issue, and they wanted the government to remove this debarring criteria if someone is unable to take an allotted seat. 

The MCC is debarring students in the form of punishment because they left their allocated seats after counselling.” APG aspirant from Rajkot, Gujarat, who is one of the 242 doctors debarred from the NEET PG 2024 exam, says, “I scored 5,000 rank in NEET PG 2023, but was not satisfied with the seat I was getting. In the stray round, I gave up my allotted seat since I was looking for an MD in Radiology but instead received an MD in Medicine. This seat was eventually filled in a special stray round. However, I was also not allowed to participate in the special round. My deposit money was forfeited and the allotment letter mentions debarring me from the counselling for NEET PG 2024. 

Since the seat which I left was not wasted, the government’s banning me for a year is not justified.” The MCC has collected an undertaking from the candidates appearing in the special stray vacancy round amounting to Rs 1.21 crore as a penalty for leaving these seats.