Fearing hike in fee, merit holders give DMC a miss
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, September 5
Dayanand Medical College (DMC), Ludhiana, one of the premier medical institutes in the state, saw a steep decline in the cutoff for admission on MBBS seats this time.
In the counselling-cum-admission for open category MBBS seats in the state, conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) here on Thursday, the DMC, which always stood on the top of the list for high-ranking aspirants, relegated to the fourth position among eight medical colleges in terms of preference.
Last year, the cutoff for MBBS government quota seats at the DMC was
6,953 NEET rank, which slipped to 21,998 this time. Similarly, the cutoff
for management quota seats slipped from 19,283 NEET rank in 2018 to 25,284 in 2019.
Last year, Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) of Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot were lagging behind the DMC as a preference for merit holders in the MBBS course. However this time, the DMC was their fourth option.
Against the DMC cutoff (21,998) for government quota MBBS seats, Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot GMCs remained at 10,824, 19,147 and 19,204 NEET ranks, respectively.
This steep decline in the DMC cutoff is attributed to the college demanding an undertaking from the students that they will pay the difference of the fee subject after the decision of the High Court regarding the hike.
The DMC offers 100 MBBS seats. Of these, 50 are under government quota and the state has fixed Rs 13.43 lakh as full course tuition fee. Of the remaining 50 seats, 35 are under the management quota for which Rs 40.29 lakh tuition fee is charged and 15 NRI seats for which the fee is $1.10 lakh.
Claiming to be autonomous bodies, Adesh Medical College, Bathinda, and the SGPC-owned Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College, Amritsar, charge over Rs 50 lakh and Rs 46 lakh, respectively. Both these colleges do not offer any government quota seats. The DMC
also wants to have its say in the matter, said a senior functionary of the college management preferring anonymity.
Fearful of hike in fee structure on the pattern of Sri Guru Ram Das and Adesh Medical College, many meritorious students preferred the three GMCs over the DMC where the tuition fee is just Rs 4.40 lakh for the entire course.
Students submit plaint
Opposing the undertaking demanded by the DMC, some students have submitted a complaint to the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences and the latter has forwarded it to the Medical Education Department.
Cutoff slips
QUOTA 2018 (NEET rank) 2019 (NEET rank)
Govt seats 6,953 21,998
Mgmt seats 19,283 25,284
