Aspirants for PG medical seats down by 40 per cent

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, April 9

The delay by the state government in making notification pertaining to the counselling for admissions to MD/MS/MDS (postgraduate medical and dental) courses has led to about 40 per cent cut in the number of candidates applying for these seats this time.

For a total of 730 MD, MS and MDS seats in seven medical and 14 dental colleges, there are 1,499 applicants this time in comparison to 2,502 candidates for 719 seats last year.

If last year, aspirants had three weeks’ time to make online registration and give their applications, this time the delay in issuing the notification by the Department of Medical Education and Research left the aspirants with just four days to make online registration and send applications.

Due to a controversy over the fee structure for PG seats in Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College in Amritsar and Adesh Medical College in Bathinda, the DMER made the notification on March 29 and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) gave only four days to the aspirants to submit applications. The counselling for admissions was started on April 6.

Having 103 MD and MS seats, Adesh Medical College and SGPC-run Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College (SGRDMC) has announced their own fee structure for all clinical seats. While the state government has capped the fee for a three-year clinical course at Rs 19.50 lakh in all private medical colleges in the state, the SGRDMC has announced its fee as Rs 36.16 lakh and Adesh’’s fee structure is Rs 49.32 lakh.

While medical aspirants were left confused over the fee and there was no date for starting the counselling in in the last week of March, the Medical Counsel Committee announced to start its second round of centralised counselling from April 5 to April 9.

In this confused state, a large number of students opted for seats under the Central quota in other parts of the country and the number of applicants in Punjab plummeted, said sources in the BFUHS.

1,499 applicants 

For a total of 730 MD, MS and MDS seats in seven medical and 14 dental colleges, there are 1,499 applicants this time in comparison to 2,502 candidates for 719 seats last year