A medical aspirant from Dhali near Udumalpet, who was waitlisted for medical admissions during the recently-concluded counselling for admissions to medical and dental courses, has requested the State government to help her enrol in a medical course.
S. Dhulfiya, who studied at Bharathiyar Centenary Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Udumalpet from Class VI to XII, said on Wednesday that she scored 192 out of 720 marks in NEET 2020 and was qualified for the 7.5% horizontal reservation announced by the State government. When she went to Chennai along with her parents on November 18 to attend the counselling event, she was told that there were no more vacancies in government medical colleges and that the seats were available for her in two private medical colleges in Coimbatore and Madurai.
“They said that the fees will come up to ₹ 5 lakhs,” Ms. Dhulfiya said. With her father working as an autorickshaw driver, she said that her family will not be able to afford the expenses and she was waitlisted.
On November 21, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced the creation of a revolving fund to financially assist NEET-qualified government school students who have been allotted seats in private medical and dental colleges under the 7.5% quota. Ms. Dhulfiya said that she wrote to the Chief Minister and District Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan on November 22 regarding her situation and seeking assistance to pursue medical education. “There has been no response so far,” she said. Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan said that the district administration will get in touch with her and take necessary action.