NMC asks Private Medical colleges to have online counselling for stray vacancy round

Hyderabad: In an attempt to stop the blocking of PG seats by some college managements, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed the medical counselling committees to have online counselling for stray vacancy round. The National Medical Commission Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) has issued a circular to the principal secretaries of health of all the States. The Commission has cited the orders of the Supreme Court that the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of DGHS (Director General of Health Services), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should conduct online counselling for stray vacancies round for 100 per cent seats in Deemed Universities in UG and PG courses.

The State counselling agencies have been asked to make necessary arrangements for conducting the counselling in online mode, for all rounds including stray vacancies round in Private Medical Colleges, from academic year 2023-24. The Commission has also said that no college/institute should conduct the counselling, including the stray vacancy round in physical mode. The commission said that this move would help the issue of seat blocking and complaints/court cases related to counselling. Last year, the Medical counselling committee had sought a clarity from the apex court regarding the order issued on May 9, 2017 to the extent that there should be four rounds of common counselling for all India quota seats conducted by the Committees, DGHS, which is in congruence with the modified scheme of counselling.

Some colleges were blocking seats in the name of the students who get good rank and seat in other states during the second phase of counselling. The students who get the seat in the first phase may not choose the seat as they get their seat in their desired college. The colleges had taken this to their advantage and these left-over seats were sold at a higher price, which deprives merit students. Some of the students had no idea how their name had cropped up in the list of seats allocated in the counselling. To put an end to this type of malpractices, the NMC directed even the private colleges to have only online counselling and not the physical one.