Mumbai: After facing allegations of seat blocking by medical colleges at the final institute-level round of MBBS admissions, the state has switched back to the centralised process for filling vacant seats at dental colleges.
On Wednesday, the state Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell announced a fresh schedule for the second stray vacancy round for BDS admissions. Unlike medical admissions, where the counselling for the second stray vacancy round was conducted at the institute level, the selection list for the dental course has been declared centrally by the Cell. The 217 selected candidates have until Saturday to confirm their admission at their respective institutes.
DCI extends cut-off date
While the two stray vacancy rounds for both MBBS and BDS were to be conducted online at the state-level, the Medical Education department last week decided to hand over the second-round counselling for private medical seats to their respective institutes. The dental admissions were put on hold as the Dental Council of India (DCI) had extended the admission cut-off date from September 30.
Candidates: Loopholes in admission process
The state’s decision came despite an earlier directive by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to carry out the entire counselling process, including the stray vacancy rounds, in online mode. While the government claimed that it was done to ensure filling up all the vacancies, many candidates complained that the colleges denied them admission in favour of other less meritorious students.
“If the government switched to institute-level admissions to fill 141 MBBS seats, what’s the rationale for not doing so for 217 vacant dental seats? It appears that since there’s no money involved in BDS, the selection was done by the CET Cell and not the institutes,” said Akshay Sable, a Pune-based medical counsellor.
The CET Cell will announce more rounds if the BDS seats are still available after the second stray vacancy round.
