The National Medical Council (NMC) has reduced the qualifying percentile for post graduation (PG) in medical and dental courses to zero across all the categories, causing a major unrest among candidates vying for seats this year. While candidates were waiting for seat allotments in the third round, a new notice was issued by the NMC, informing candidates about the changes in the qualifying criterion. "A fresh schedule for PG counselling's Round 3 onwards would be put up on the MCC website soon," states the notice issued on Wednesday. "Fresh registration and choice filling for Round 3 of PG counselling will again be opened for candidates who have become eligible for the same following the reduction in percentile. Candidates who have become freshly eligible can register and participate in Round 3 of the counselling. Candidates who have already registered do not need to do the same again. They, however, will be allowed to edit their choices." Candidates and parents, meanwhile, have termed the move "unfair" as many were expecting an upgrade in the third round of the counselling process. "This year, seat upgrades are allowed in the third round too. In this round, many seats from different categories convert into general, after not having found qualifying candidates from the respective category. Many candidates anticipated this while filling preferences of colleges for the third round. But now, if the qualifying criteria is zero, seats will not convert," said Sudha Shenoy, a parent, adding that zero percentile could go up to as low as a candidate whose score is in minus. "How are the authorities planning to keep a check on the standard of the candidates becoming eligible through this?" she asked. According to parents, it was a general practice to reduce the qualifying criteria towards the end of the admission system. Another parent Brijesh Sutaria said, "The qualifying criterion was 50 percentiles. As per the regular practice, it could have been lowered to 45 or 40. But it has never been zero. This is a mockery of the system." Meanwhile, qualifying percentile for the general category was fixed at 50 percentile, 45 for persons with disabilities (PwD), and 40 for the reserved category. Earlier this month, there were demands to lower the qualifying criterion for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Postgraduate) or NEET-PG cut-off percentile by organisations such as the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) so that most of the seats could be filled.
