Uncertainty looms large over NEET-PG

Sunil Naliyath

Kochi, Oct 27, 2012: With two of the prominent private medical colleges having gone ahead with their admission notification concerning post graduate medical entrance, the central government's proposal to hold a common entrance for the said programme nationally, is being overcast by uncertainty.

The Christian Medical College, Vellore and Bijapur-based BLDE University have advertised admission notification for medical courses for the academic year 2013-14.   They have issued admission notification for all the faculties on offer and that too for postgraduate diploma and degree courses.

Meanwhile, the consortium of private professional colleges in Karnataka has decided to float an entrance exam of their own for admission to post graduate medical courses as against the proposal for a unified mode of examination.

However, one of the universities has gone on record stating that the Medical Council of India has notified the NEET as per its new regulations and that they have challenged it and the matter is pending at the Supreme Court of India.  They further reiterate in their admission bulletin that the admission process is being commenced subject to the orders of the Supreme Court. The hearing on a bunch of petitions against the National Eligibility and Entrance Test will come up before the Supreme Court on October 29.

Needless to say, the prevailing system of conducting state-wise entrance puts much pressure on the PG aspirants.  Due to lack of a common admission directive, the students are bound to appear for entrance examinations at varied places and are also compelled to prepare different syllabi for tests in respective states.  This not only drains them financially but also puts them under psychological pressure as, in some cases, certain exam dates often coincide with each other. 

Some of the states like Kerala have already welcomed the need for a national level entrance test such as NEET-PG and the Govt of Kerala has announced that they will only be conducting the counseling in 2013 and not the entrance examination for Medical PG. 

As a matter of fact, the very process of admission procedure is rather a very costly affair.  According to a notification issued by a private medical college, the applicants from SAARC countries should remit Rs 1500 and those from other foreign countries will have to dole out US dollars 100 or its equivalent as administrative fee in addition to the registration fee per course.  This also calls for the need of a common admission test for medical PG.

The lack of conviction in chasing a deadline to implement the NEET and the government's laid back approach in streamlining the already announced National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Post Graduate (NEET-PG) for admission to MD/MS/Post Graduate Diploma Courses is making the aspirants a worried lot.

Key words: NEET, NEET PG, NEET 2013, NEET PG 2013, MCI, CMC Vellore....