Counselling for medical and paramedical courses is set to begin on Tuesday amid confusion over several issues such as Medical Council of India (MCI) approval for a government medical college and litigation by a private institution.
The Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) that facilitates the admission of students to professional courses every year, had, by June 10, received over 7,500 applications for courses — including MBBS, nursing, pharmacy and engineering.
Last week, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, while releasing the rank list, had said that the counselling would begin on June 20. Later, the CENTAC website said that it would begin on June 24.
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As per the directions of the Supreme Court, the counselling ought to have started by this time and ended on June 25. The government had announced that 265 MBBS seats have been obtained from seven private self-financing medical colleges. However, it has not yet disclosed the name of the colleges and details of the seats.
As of now, 1,003 candidates have been called for medical counselling on Tuesday.
“The CENTAC has not clarified the details on admissions under quota such as sports, differently-abled, ex-servicemen. Fee structure for private medical colleges has not been mentioned,” said Vai. Balasubramanian, president of Students and Parents Welfare Association.
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V. Perumal, CPI(M) State unit secretary, said: “In the given situation, doubts abound on whether the toppers in the rank list would get seats in the government college or not. The government should come forward to allay the confusion.”
An official press release from the CENTAC, meanwhile, said: “It is informed that students who are called for counselling for MBBS and BDS courses on June 24 and 25 are required to furnish choice of the course and college only at the time of counselling. This is in view of the approval being pending from the MCI in respect of the Indira Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute and also the pendency of a case in the Madras High Court relating to the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences.”
Allocation rank“Students will be provided with an allocation rank on provisional basis and regular allotment will be sent to them either by e-mail or other means of communication during the second week of July, if necessary by an additional counselling, the date of which will be announced later,” the release said.
A top official in the CENTAC said, “As per the Supreme Court’s direction, we are under compulsion to commence the counselling. All details will be updated on the website by tonight. With regard to Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, we have submitted a compliance report to the Union Ministry of Health seeking recognition. The government of Puducherry is taking all efforts in this regard .”