NEET-PG Cut-Off Slashed To Zero: FAIMA Chief Warns Of 'Alarming' Impact On Medical Standards

New Delhi: Dr Rohan Krishnan, Chief Patron of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), on Wednesday criticised the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) for lowering the NEET-PG qualifying percentile to fill vacant postgraduate medical seats.

In a video message, Krishnan said that reducing the cut-off to the zero percentile means that even candidates who scored below the cut-off are now eligible for postgraduate medical admissions.

Dr Rohan Krishnan's Statement

"The NEET PG percentile has again been reduced and this time it has been reduced to zero percentile. For this means that for someone who has scored minus 40 in the examination means that who has not if someone who would have not attempted any question would have gotten zero, but there are these people who have attempted questions and attempted a lot of wrong questions and that is why they have they have gotten minus 40 in their examination system and they are also eligible to become clinicians in this country," Krishnan said in a video message.

Krishnan warned that such candidates would be permitted to practice medicine and perform surgeries, calling the development alarming.

"They are also eligible to take part in surgeries, they are also eligible to practice medicine in this nation. I think that this is very sad and it has become a trend that every year they are reducing the percentile of the NEET and if we want to see that why it is happening, why it is they are constantly reducing, then we must understand that this is because they want to fill up the seats of the private medical colleges," Krishnan said.

He alleged that several private colleges offering postgraduate seats lack adequate infrastructure, teaching facilities, patient load, and medical equipment, discouraging meritorious students from seeking admission.

"What happens is that there are colleges which are substandard, suboptimal, not having proper teaching facilities, not having proper medical patients, not having any good equipments and so that meritorious students will not go and take admission in such colleges. Now what happens is that they want to fill these seats because each such colleges, there are many colleges which should have not been given permissions to run clinical seats, to run postgraduate seats but are having 20-20 seats in clinical subjects," Krishnan said.

Expressing disappointment, Krishnan apologised to medical students, stating that this situation has persisted for the past five years. Krishnan alleged that private players continue to increase seats because lowering the cut-off allows even remote colleges with inadequate facilities to gain approvals. He stressed the need to strictly regulate permissions granted to medical colleges.

"And I'm sorry as a medical leader also to all the students that they have to witness this and it is very sad state of affairs because I was not expecting that they will again do this. This has happened to become a trend from past five years. They are doing it again and again and that is why private players are again increasing the seats because they think that since the demand supply ratio is such that if you reduce the cutoff to zero and minus, even some college in the remote areas which have no facilities whatsoever will also get permission. So we have to curtail the permission part at first which is very important," he said.

"It is very sacrosanct and medical education for sale will not happen if we are there and we are not going to let this happen anymore. And we will think of doing corrective measures and we will also try to fix an appointment and meet with the concerned people regarding this," he added.

In a significant move to address the large number of vacant postgraduate medical seats across the country, National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has revised the qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG 2025 admissions.

According to sources to ANI , "This decision follows the completion of Round-2 counselling, where over 18,000 PG seats remained unfilled in government and private medical colleges." "The revision aims to ensure optimal utilisation of available seats, which are vital for expanding India's pool of trained medical specialists. Leaving such seats vacant undermines national efforts to improve healthcare delivery and results in the loss of valuable educational resources," sources said further.

All NEET-PG candidates are MBBS-qualified doctors who have completed their degrees and internships. NEET-PG serves as a ranking mechanism to facilitate transparent, merit-based allocation of seats through centralised counselling. The previous percentile thresholds had restricted the pool of eligible candidates despite the availability of seats.

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