Mumbai: Over 2,463 seats in the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Bachelor of Dental Studies (BDS) undergraduate (UG) programmes in various medical and dental colleges and universities of India, are vacant, according to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC). New students wanting to apply for admissions to UG medical and dental programmes were given time to register, from January 4 to 6 for the stray vacancy round, which will be conducted offline.
On completion of the mop-up round of UG Counselling on December 29, 2020, the MCC released a list of vacant seats. These 2,463 seats are vacant in various Central and state government medical colleges and deemed universities of India. The MCC stated, "Candidates must confirm the vacancy position from respective colleges, institutes or university and report directly to the institute where seats will be allocated to registered and eligible candidates, strictly in terms of merit for on-the-spot counselling."
Students seeking admissions to MBBS and BDS programmes said the vacancies had emerged because of change in reservation. Aasha Solanki, a student applying for an MBBS seat, said, "Every year, seats are full after two merit rounds and one mop-up round in well-known government-aided medical colleges. But this year, no seat reservation for Maratha quota students under Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category has led to some vacancy."
While Darshan Baburajan, a student applying for a BDS seat, said, "I want a seat in a government-aided college in Maharashtra because the fees of private dental colleges is way too high. I have applied in the stray vacancy round for a seat in the general category."
Two seats are vacant for the BDS course under management or paid quota at the BVDU Dental College and Hospital, Navi Mumbai, and 75 seats are vacant in Dr DY Patil Dental College and Hospital, Navi Mumbai. For MBBS, five seats are vacant in Dr DY Patil Medical College, Navi Mumbai, and one seat at MGM Medical College, Navi Mumbai.
Under the NRI quota, five seats are vacant for the BDS course in BVDU Dental College and Hospital, Navi Mumbai, while 37 seats are vacant in Dr DY Patil Medical College, Navi Mumbai, and 21 in MGM Medical College, Navi Mumbai, for MBBS, according to the MCC seat matrix for the stray vacancy round.
The MCC further stated, "Candidates who had registered in previous rounds and were not holding any seat, were given an option to directly report to the institutes with all the original documents and the print out of registration details. While candidates who had applied for All India Quota seats earlier and wanted to register for deemed universities were given an option to reset their registration and register again for stray vacancy round by remitting the full registration fee."
