Of the 25,000-odd students who have qualified for MBBS/BDS counselling as part of State quota seats this year, 1,320 are from government and government-aided schools.
Among them, 12 have secured ranks within the top 3,000, according to the NEET-based merit list for admission to MBBS/BDS released on Thursday.
G. Selvarajan, secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education (DME), said a total of 409 government school students applied for State quota seats, of which 390 were eligible. Out of the 991 applicants from government-aided schools, 930 students were eligible.
Releasing two rank lists for admission to State quota seats in government/self-financing colleges and management quota seats in self-financing colleges, Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar told reporters that as many as 25,417 candidates were eligible from the total number of 28,067 applicants for government quota seats. “This year, differently-abled candidates will have 5% reservation in seats. We have increased the number of seats for sportspersons and children of ex-servicemen. There are seven medical seats and one dental seat for sportspersons and 10 MBBS seats and one dental seat for children of ex-servicemen,” he said.
Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said that though there were no additional seats this year, the government ensured that status quo was maintained.
Counselling sessions
The first phase of counselling will begin on July 1 with counselling for special categories — sportspersons, children of ex-servicemen and differently-abled. As vacant seats from the all India quota would be transferred to the State quota on July 23, the second phase of counselling would be adjusted accordingly. The State government is still undecided on the number of seats that Christian Medical College, Vellore, would be surrendering for counselling. “CMC is taking part in the counselling for the first time. Being a minority institution, there are certain court directions that ought to be followed. Apart from the seats surrendered to the State pool, we will be conducting counselling for the remaining seats too,” Radhakrishnan said.
Transgender’s case
Initially, the Minister announced that a transgender person had qualified for counselling. However, officials later clarified that the person had applied for MBBS/BDS without appearing for NEET.
That would have rendered the application invalid. A large number of students from previous years also applied for MBBS/BDS this year.
