NEET counselling postponed notice wrong, clarifies health ministry; process likely to begin by month-end

NEW DELHI: The union ministry of health has clarified that the news regarding postponement of NEET UG counselling 2024 is wrong citing that the counselling date has not been notified yet, as per All India Radio. The health ministry rubbished news reports claiming that the medical counselling for MBBS, BDS admissions 2024 has been postponed.

“Health ministry has clarified that the news about NEET UG counselling being postponed is incorrect because the date of counselling has not been notified yet,” said AIR in a post on its official Hindi X (formerly Twitter) handle.

Meanwhile, sources told PTI that the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2024 counselling is expected to commence by the month end. The NEET counselling session was likely to begin in the first week of July, however, no official date or schedule was announced by the counselling authorities, said a PTI report. The process of issuing permission letters to some medical colleges was still ongoing and additional seats were likely to be added to the MBBS, BDS programmes, it said.

"The date of counselling will be announced once the exercise gets over to ensure seats of the new colleges can be taken up in the first round itself," an official source told PTI. They reportedly said the NEET UG counselling process might start later this month.

NEET controversy

On demands for cancellation of exam over alleged irregularities and controversy that followed, the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) recently told the Supreme Court that scrapping NEET UG 2024 without any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality would be counterproductive as it could "seriously jeopardise" several medical aspirants.

Last month, top court refused to put a stay on the NEET 2024 counselling process while hearing a petition filed by NEET candidates seeking a direction to halt the counselling process.