Congress slams govt for reducing NEET PG qualifying percentile to zero

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the reduction of the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2023 to zero, alleging that the move is aimed at benefitting private medical colleges and a select few.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare last month reduced to zero the qualifying percentile for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-PG 2023 to be eligible for counselling across all categories.

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Union Health Ministry officials had said that reducing the qualifying percentile to zero would increase the pool of qualifying candidates but not dilute the merit system for admission to postgraduate medical courses. Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Ajoy Kumar said, "The BJP's bumper loot offer has started in private medical colleges. The price of MD Radiology was Rs 3 crore last year and this year it has become Rs 11 crore. The price of MD Medicine increased to Rs 5 crore and MD Dermatology costs Rs 10 crore."

Kumar said the move is aimed at befitting a few people and private medical colleges. "You may sleep, play ludo, listen to disco music, during the exam or even get minus 40, you would still be eligible for PG (admission in postgraduate courses) under NEET. Merit be damned, Modiji has ensured that the health system is destroyed while crores are reaped through private medical colleges for the upcoming elections," the Congress leader alleged.

There are 68,142 postgraduate medical seats in the country. Till now, candidates scoring above 50 percentile were eligible to participate in the counselling process for admission in postgraduate medical courses through NEET. Last year, the qualifying criteria was kept at 20 percentile. Even then, 3,000 seats remained vacant under the all-India quota, officials had said.