Mumbai: In an unprecedented move, the National Medical Commission (NMC) invalidated the recent admission of 141 MBBS students to private medical colleges in the state. These students were admitted in the final ‘institute-level’ round of admission, which the apex body found to be violative of its directive to conduct the entire admission process in an online mode.
In a letter to the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell as well as 18 private colleges on Wednesday, NMC said that the cell’s eleventh-hour notice to hand over the counselling process for the second stray vacancy round of undergraduate medical admissions defied the NMC’s July notice requiring all the state counselling authorities to carry out all rounds of admission, including stray vacancy rounds, in online mode and forbidding institutes from conducting the counselling process. It asked the colleges to discharge all the students admitted in the institute-level round.
Institute-wise counselling process
The cell had earlier planned to conduct both the stray vacancy rounds, which are carried out after the three regular rounds of admission, in the centralised online manner. However, as soon as the first round was over, the state government directed to fill the remaining 141 vacant seats via an institute-wise counselling process. The decision was criticised by the aspirants, who alleged that it allowed the colleges to block their seats and allot them to their favoured candidates.
The state; however, continues to stand by its decision and is now seeking the withdrawal of its stern letter. “The colleges had requested us to have the institute-level round, as they couldn’t fill their seats in the first stray vacancy round. A matter on this issue, where NMC is also a party, is still pending in the Bombay High Court. We believe that our position supersedes the NMC’s directive. We will write them to let the admissions stay,” said Dinesh Waghmare, Principal Secretary, the Medical Education Department.
The medical education counsellors and activists have lashed the government for going against the NMC’s directive and causing agony to students. The students will lose a year due to the government's fault. The seats will also go vacant.
