Kamal Ghorui
When the cut-off percentile for NEET PG was reduced to zero in 2023, private colleges benefited more than govt colleges. Around 64% of seats filled by students who scored below the initial cut-off were in private colleges. Not only that, 2,677 or about 85% of seats in clinical specialties bagged by those with scores below the initial cut-off were in private medical colleges as well. In comparison, only 485 clinical specialty seats in govt colleges were filled by those with scores below the initial cut-off. Tuition fees are highest for clinical specialties in private colleges.
General category candidates benefited the most from the cut-off reduction as they accounted for over 56% of those admitted with scores below the first cut-off. OBCs accounted for 26%, and SC and ST candidates 11% and 6%, respectively. The skew is even more pronounced among those who got clinical specialities in private colleges – 70% were from the general category, and about 20% were OBC. In govt colleges, the general category accounted for 33% of such seats and OBC for 37%. To understand what happens when the cut-off is reduced to zero percentile, TOI analysed admissions to PG seats in 2023, when it was dropped to zero percentile or -40 out of 800 marks for all categories. The reduction took place as thousands of seats remained vacant. A “consolidated list” of PG admissions in 2023 put up on the National Medical Commission (NMC) website shows that the lowest score that got admission belonged to a general category candidate, who scored zero out of 800. Sixty-nine candidates with less than 50 marks got admission. This included 39 from general, 20 from OBC, seven from SC and three from ST category. The “consolidated list of PG students” admitted under NEET 2023 was put up on June 13, 2024, on the NMC website but gives data only for about 43,900 seats. According to the health ministry’s reply to a Rajya Sabha question in July 2024, there were 54,834 PG seats in medical colleges in 2023. This indicates that data for over 10,900 seats is missing from the list. It does not, for instance, include data of PG seats in central govt-funded colleges such as PGI Chandigarh, JIPMER and all the AIIMS. There is also no data on admission to over 10,000 DNB seats.
