Odisha govt to regulate counselling for admissions into all medical colleges

Bhubaneswar:  In a bid to regulate and streamline admissions into post graduate (PG) streams especially by private and deemed universities, the state government has decided to take over the counselling for filing up the seats in such institutions from the current academic session.

“The counselling was earlier done for both private and government medical colleges. But this year, state authorities will also do the counselling for the medical colleges under the deemed universities,” said Joint Director, Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET), Umakant Satpathy.

As per plans, the state counselling authority shall conduct the combined counselling including the 50 percent seats of medical colleges under the deemed universities.

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According to a government notification, “The state quota seats shall be filled up by way of counselling from amongst the candidates whose names will figure in the PG (Medical) 2017 State Merit List.  Similarly, the seats of the deemed universities shall be filled by way of counselling from amongst the candidates whose name will appear in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) PG 2017 All India Merit List.”

The state government is keen to follow the same format not only for PG courses but also for admissions into MBBS and BDS courses. The move is expected to bring uniformity and the course fees, which have been a cause of concern students as well as their guardians, charged by such private medical institutions can be regulated.

Earlier, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had also issued guidelines for streamlining and bringing transparency in medical admissions in the country.

“This will bring transparency as the government will do the counselling of both private and deemed universities which will be in accordance of the Supreme Court and MCI directions,” said additional secretary of Health department, Surajit Das.

Educationist Sudarshan Das said that the move is expected to curb the commercialisation of medical education as well as other irregularities.