490 BDS seats still vacant in 10 colleges in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Balwant Garg

Faridkot, May 11

Call it a problem of plenty that even after five rounds of counselling, 10 private dental colleges in the state have failed to fill 490 of their vacant Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) seats.

Punjab has total 14 private and two government dental colleges. Only four private and two government dental colleges have been able to fill all their 340 BDS seats. In 10 private dental colleges, the number of vacant seats is 490 out of their total 1,000 seats.

To fill the 549 vacant BDS seats in these 10 colleges, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) had invited students for fifth round of counselling last week. Only 75 candidates expressed their willingness for these seats through registration with the BFUHS. However, in the result of fifth round counselling, declared by the BFUHHS on Wednesday, 59 candidates opted for admission in BDS course leaving 490 seats vacant.

Some of these 10 private dental colleges have 64 to 82 per cent vacant seats even after the fifth round of counselling. These colleges are now hoping for lowering percentile for the qualification of the BDS course admission during the current academic session, which will help them fill vacant seats.

Presently, candidates belonging to the general category, who have scored 50th percentile – the corresponding marks range is 720 to 138 – are eligible and considered for the BDS course admission.

Likewise, students belonging to the reserved categories (SC/ST/OBC) are qualified if they have secured 40 percentile points, marks range is 137 to 108, while the cut-off for persons with disability has been revised to 45 percentile, marks range 137 to 122.

On May 7, The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had announced not to lower the qualifying cut-off percentile for admissions to the BDS course. This decision of the ministry came after the executive committee of the Dental Council of India (DCI), in its meeting held on April 6, recommended to the Centre to reduce the qualifying percentile,

To oppose this decision of the ministry, many dental colleges have approached the Supreme Court for lowering the cut-off percentile for admission as many aspirant students are not able to get minimum marks and hence, do not qualify for the admission in the BDS course.

Counselling over

• There are a total of 14 private and two government dental colleges in the state
• Four private and two government colleges have been able to fill all their 340 BDS seats
• In 10 private dental colleges, the number of vacant seats is 490 out of 1,000 seats