Direct DGHS to give extra application window for 1,311 vacant NEET PG seats: MP urges Mansukh Mandaviya

NEW DELHI: P Wilson, Member of Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha has urged Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya to intervene and direct Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to provide an extra application window to fill 1,311 vacant postgraduate seats in academic session 2022-23. The MP expressed shock over the number of vacant seats and called out DGHS for being 'lethargic' and found them 'irresponsible' and 'incompetent' for the system.

In a letter to Mandaviya, Wilson said that he received numerous complaints that about 1,311 PG seats are lying vacant across states even after special stray vacancy round of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) PG counselling 2022 for MD, MS, DNB courses. According to the list of vacant PG seats shared by the MP, Maharashtra has the highest number of vacant seats which is 325 followed by Karnataka with 268 vacant seats.

Questioning the NEET counselling process by DGHS, he said that it “poses a grim picture on the NEET counselling procedure and exposes the harm the NEET causes and the lethargic manner the Director General of Health Services are conducting themselves in handling the medical seats. Each of PG medical seats are national assets and it’s shocking to note that they’re going waste due to mismanagement of counselling procedure in filling up of stray vacancies.”

About 1311 PG seats remains unfilled in various medical colleges located throughout India for academic year 2022-2023 and are lying vacant. I gave a letter today to @OfficeOf_MM and I had requested Hon’ble @mansukhmandviya to intervene as national assets are going waste ! pic.twitter.com/FhU89EUN4o

— P. Wilson (@PWilsonDMK) February 3, 2023

Wilson said that he had written twice to the health minister regarding the issue. He was concerned that many meritorious and poor students are getting unfair treatment as the seats obtained out of their merit are counted towards quota. This is in violation of the Supreme Court orders, he said. The MP found the haste of announcing stray vacancies and conducting counselling as another reason for students being unable to participate.

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Demanding revamp of DGHS and action against officials, the MP said, “The DGHS requires to be revamped completely as every counselling period there are lot of confusions and delay in approaching the Honorable Supreme Court for extension of time in counselling/stray vacancies etc and the students are put to untold hardships. The concerned DGHS officials who are lethargic, irresponsible, and incompetent have no place in this system and necessary actions have to be initiated departmentally against them for this confusion.”

Explaining what went wrong with the NEET PG seats, the MP said that the state quota seats could not be filled due to lack of adequate time. There was no announcement about state quota seats when the counselling committee extended special stray vacancy rounds up to January 14, 2023. “This confusion has led to hundreds of state seats going waste and announcement of filling up of stray vacancies came only on January 10, 2023 granting time to fill up till January 14, 2023,” he argued. As a result, 100 seats were not filled in Tamil Nadu and now 1,311 PG seats are vacant.

Wilson further said that it needs to be ensured that the medical colleges are running at full capacity in order to provide for the needs of increasing population. He said that the failure of DGHS and counselling committees to fill seats within the given time-frame puts students at risk who study hard and spend substantial amount of money and time.