485 UG, 247 PG medical seats vacant in 2023: Govt tells Parliament

NEW DELHI: 485 undergraduate and 247 postgraduate medical seats are currently vacant as per the National Medical Commission, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar said in the Rajya Sabha today.

The MoS was replying to a question on the number of medical seats vacant in PG and UG in the current academic session along with the reasons and whether the National Eligibility Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) percentile has been dropped to zero for the first time. The question was also raised on whether general category candidates scoring less than reserved categories are getting PG admissions and whether students with much less scores are securing seats.

Replying to all the questions at once, the minister said, "In the current academic year, the total number of vacant UG seats is 485 as informed by National Medical Commission. The percentile has been dropped to zero for PG admission to fill up the vacant seats, and therefore every candidate who appeared in NEET-PG becomes eligible to participate in counselling. Special stray vacancy rounds have been conducted for PG counselling in the current academic year to fill the seats. 247 seats under All India Quota for PGs have been reported to be vacant.”

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The minister also stated that the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) conducts the NEET UG, PG counselling for medical courses as per the scheme devised by the Supreme Court.

In another reply, it was informed that there is an increase of 82 percent in the number of medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 706 as of now. The MBBS seats have increased to 112% from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,08,940 and PG seats have been increased to 127% from 31,185 before 2014 to 70,674 currently.

Last year, over 4,000 PG medical seats remained vacant after NEET PG counselling while 261 MBBS seats were left after the counselling process.