According to the National Medical Commission, there are currently 485 undergraduate and 247 postgraduate medical seats open, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar stated in the Rajya Sabha today.
In response to an inquiry concerning the number of open medical seats in PG and UG during the current academic year, the MoS provided information on the reasons behind the change as well as whether or not the National Eligibility Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) percentile has been lowered to zero for the first time. It was also questioned whether students with much lower marks were able to secure seats, and whether general category candidates who scored worse than those from special categories were admitted to graduate school.
The minister responded to every question at once, saying that the National Medical Commission has reported that there are 485 open UG seats for the current academic year. Since the percentile for PG admission has been lowered to zero in order to fill the open seats, all candidates who took the NEET-PG are now qualified to take part in counseling. In order to fill the seats, special stray vacancy rounds for PG counseling have been held throughout the current academic year. There are 247 PG seats up for grabs under the All India Quota.
Medical colleges statistics
The minister added that NEET UG and PG counseling for medical courses is conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in accordance with the plan established by the Supreme Court. In a different response, it was said that the number of medical colleges has increased by 82%, from 387 in 2014 to 706 currently. The number of PG seats has climbed to 127% from 31,185 prior to 2014 to 70,674 presently, while the number of MBBS seats has increased to 112% from 51,348 prior to 2014 to 1,08,940.
Last year statistics
Over 4,000 PG medical seats were unfilled following NEET PG counseling last year, whereas 261 MBBS seats remained after the counseling procedure.
