NEET: 485 UG, 247 PG medical seats vacant in 2023, Minister tells Rajya Sabha

The NEET PG percentile has been dropped to zero to fill up the vacant seats, and therefore every candidate who appeared in NEET PG becomes eligible to participate in counselling, the government tells Parliament.

Over 700 NEET UG and PG seats are vacant, government tells Rajya Sabha today (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi/ representational)

According to the National Medical Commission, a total of 485 undergraduate (UG) and 247 postgraduate (PG) medical seats under the all-India quota are currently vacant, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.

The minister was replying to an unstarred question on the number of UG and PG medical seats lying vacant in the current academic session along with the reasons.

The National Eligibility Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) percentile has been dropped to zero for the first time. A question was also raised on whether general category candidates who scored lower marks than those obtained by the reserved categories are getting into PG courses in medicine and whether students with less scores are securing seats.

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Saying that the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) administers the NEET UG and NEET PG counselling for admission to medical programmes as per the scheme devised by the Supreme Court, the minister informed: “The percentile has been dropped to zero for PG admission to fill up the vacant seats, and therefore every candidate who appeared in NEET-PG becomes eligible to participate in counselling.”

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Special stray vacancy rounds have been conducted for PG counselling in the current academic year to fill the seats, the minister said.

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As per data shared by the government earlier, as many as 1,01,043 MBBS seats and 65,335 PG medical seats were available in the country for the 2023 academic session.

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