The Directorate of Medical Education has removed two candidates from the State merit list on Tuesday as they are not from the State and they feature in the merit lists of neighbouring States too.
During the day, after a tweet on students whose names are in the merit lists of several States, there was a brief hiatus in the progress of MBBS counselling.
Srikanth G. and Kuppala Naga Sai Tejeswar figure in the provisional merit list of candidates of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, Telangana State for MBBS/BDS Admission under the competent authority quota 2019-20. Both claimed quota under the BC category. While the former has scored 425 marks, the latter has scored 375 marks. Srikanth features as a local in both the AP and Telangana lists.
An hour after the Minister issued allotment letters to the 10 toppers in the State, counselling was stopped. The selection secretary was called to explain how names overlapped on the merit lists of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The issue was raised by Madurai MLA P.T.R. Thiyaga Rajan, who in a series of tweets as early as 8.11 a.m. pointed out “218 students appearing in T.N. & Andhra/Karnataka/Telangana NEET merit lists — a clear violation under the T.N. GO. Kerala (where the greatest overlap occurred back in 2017) curiously uses non-standard student IDs so overlaps are hard to check.”
As Selection Secretary G. Selvarajan was called to respond to the questions, for over two hours students were clueless about the status of counselling.
A.P. connection
As many as 76 candidates who applied for various medical courses under the Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences also appear in the merit list of Tamil Nadu. The provisional merit list of 15, 613 candidates who applied for MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BHMS, BNYS and BUMS admissions 2019-20 in the university has all the names of all the 76 candidates. In the Tamil Nadu list, A.P. duplicate candidates are ranked between 76 and 29, 418.
A total of 40,390 candidates from Andhra Pradesh took the NEET exam and secured more than 107 marks. The university is yet to release the final merit list.
It has become imperative for the State government to resolve the issue so that no eligible student is denied a seat despite being eligible for it.
(With inputs from Tharun Boda)
