MCC NEET PG Counselling: Aspirants demand round 4 or stray vacancy upgrade, fear MP lag may cost seats

NEW DELHI: The delay in the state-level NEET PG counselling in Madhya Pradesh (MP) has medical aspirants across the country worried, as they fear losing their seats of choice in their own state as well as outside.

Even as the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), the body under the union ministry of health and family welfare conducting admissions, has allotted seats in the third All India Quota (AIQ) round, MP is yet to complete its second round of NEET PG counselling – the only major state lagging behind in the process.

As a result, candidates from other states couldn’t access the AIQ seats blocked by MP students since the second round. For those seeking admission in one of the medical colleges in the state, the delay means either having to take up a less-preferred spot elsewhere or risk being left without a seat.

MCC NEET PG counselling and state delays

The national and state-level counselling rounds are conducted successively – it kicks off with the first round of MCC counselling for AIQ seats followed by the first state round, then the second MCC round and so forth. This ensures that candidates can participate in both state and central counselling rounds and one doesn’t interfere with the other.

The candidates are required to resign from their last held seat – whether central or state – in order to advance to the next round, with no resignations allowed after the third allotment at the all-India admissions as well as in several of the states.

However, a plethora of court cases over the NEET PG 2024 results and merit lists in the Supreme Court (SC) and multiple high courts held up the counselling process in many states, including Telangana, Kerala and Rajasthan and even delayed the national rounds.

Madhya Pradesh NEET PG counselling delays

Madhya Pradesh was particularly affected by these cases. In December, MP High Court had ordered cancellation of the first-round merit list after some in-service candidates sued the state for adding incentive marks to their raw scores instead of normalised scores. However, the verdict was later stayed by SC. Earlier this month, the court also upheld a plea challenging the allotments to NRI candidates, asking the state to conduct fresh counselling for NRI quota seats.

To make matters worse, the state medical education director, after an inquiry, found 48 NRI candidates’ domicile documents to be forged. These candidates have now been barred from the admission process, while the authorities have sought a police probe in the matter.

Following requests from candidates, MCC further deferred the third round's registration deadline by a few days, eventually releasing the third round allotment results on Monday. Meanwhile, the choice-filling for the MP’s second round is still ongoing.

NEET PG aspirants at a disadvantage

The aspirants have written to the admission authorities explaining how this situation has put them at a disadvantage. They point out that the MP candidates holding onto their previous round seats has caused a sharp spike in the cut-off ranks compared to last year at both MD, MS as well as DNB departments in colleges across the country.

For example, the threshold for admission to paediatrics programme at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has shot up from last year’s 6,043 rank to 3725. At Maharaja Agresan Medical College in Hisar, Haryana, the diploma admissions closed at 25,830 rank, up from 34,414 in 2023, say students.

“Since MP’s second round seat allotment date of January 30 precedes the February 3 reporting deadline for all-India third round, many from the state could end up relinquishing their AIQ seats in favour of state colleges. This would potentially result in a large number of vacancies, and many candidates who could have claimed those spots would be out of the admission process this cycle. MCC could have waited a week for the third round,” explained a doctor from Bihar.

The candidates believe that carrying out the final all-India round before all state-level rounds were complete is “contrary to the rule as well as the established practices”.

They have now demanded MCC either redo the NEET PG counselling round-three after MP’s counselling, conduct a fourth national round or let all the candidates allotted seats till third round to upgrade to the stray-vacancy round.

Another aspirant from Maharashtra participating in MP’s state-level admissions said that she is in a precarious position as she can no longer seek a seat in other states. In a letter to MP’s admission authorities, she, along with other candidates, demanded that the state speed up its counselling.

“MP each time has systematically shown tardy behaviour, delaying counselling time and again, putting all meritorious MP candidates and all-India candidates at a massive disadvantage so far… Kindly expedite the counselling process and minimise the delay, so that MP candidates have a fair shot at making an informed decision for their counselling,” reads the letter.