Student scarcity may leave medical seats vacant

It pointed out that students securing 50 per cent or more marks in the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted at the State level and similar marks in the qualifying examination are eligible for admission to medical and dental courses. In case of Vidarbha region, the number of students securing 50 per cent or more marks in CET and qualifying examination is less than the number of available seats.

Analysis of the CET results by the study group indicates that a total of 650 seats are available in the medical colleges and 290 in the dental colleges in the region, out of which 15 per cent seats (58 seats) are to be filled up from amongst eligible candidates passing the All India entrance examinations. The remaining 882 are to be filled up from among the CET qualifiers.

As against these seats, only 900 students are eligible from Vidarbha. Of them, about 15 per cent (135 students), who get admission against the `payment seats’ in medical or dental courses, are expected to opt for engineering courses because they cannot afford to pay tuition fees of Rs 1.40 lakh for medical courses. This leaves only 765 students from Vidarbha region eligible for admission to medical and dental courses, the report said.

Referring to this report, the Board has suggested lowering of qualifying standards. Addressing a press conference, Board Chairman Harshwardhan Deshmukh said the Board is of the view that the minimum qualifying marks should be 40 per cent in case of Open category and 30 per cent in case of Backward Classes students.

Deshmukh said the situation is the same in case of Marathwada region where the number of eligible students is less than the number of available seats. In such a situation, the State Government should approach the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council, seeking relaxation in norms.

Reacting to reports regarding the possibility of Medical Council reducing the number of seats in Vasantrao Naik Medical College in Yavatmal, he said the Board is ready to extend all help to the Yavatmal college for providing the necessary facilities.

Deshmukh informed that the issue of backlog of post-graduate medical seats in Vidarbha has been referred to the sub-committee headed by Madhukar Kimmatkar. Other members of the committee are Dr Vedprakash Mishra, Dr Hiren Nagrale, Dr Wasudeorao Tayade, Dr Ayachit and Dr Hajare. According to a preliminary estimate, the backlog is of 153 seats. Board member Kimmatkar and member-secretary Dr S G Kinkar were also present at press conference.