In what comes as a relief to the candidates of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test for Masters of Dental Surgery (NEET MDS), the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) has decided to lower the qualifying percentile cut-off for all categories by 21.692 percentile.

In a letter issued today, September 17, by the Secretary to the Government of India, Amit Kumar, it was stated, "I am directed to say that this Ministry has decided to lower the qualifying cut-off percentile for NEET-MDS, 2024 by 21.692 percentile for each category (General, SC/ST/OBC and UR-PWD) in pursuance of DCI's MDS Regulations, 2017 and 2nd proviso in clause 7(1) of DC's Master of Dental Surgery course (Ist Amendment) Regulations, 2018."

According to the letter issued, the qualifying percentiles for NEET-MDS, 2024, for the academic session 2024-25 are:

General category (UR/Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)): 28.308

SC (Scheduled Castes)/ST (Scheduled Tribes)/OBC (Other Backward Classes) (including Persons with Disabilities (PwD) of SC/ST/OBC): 18.308

UR (Unreserved Category)-PwD: 23.308

Under these qualifying percentiles, the National Board of Examination (NBE) is directed to issue revised results. In the same way, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is asked to take appropriate action.

United Doctors Front Association (UDFA) raised the request for lowering the qualifying percentile on August 24, 2024. The association had written to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, urging him to address the concerns about the vacant seats.

The initial cut-off percentile resulted in seats going vacant. Hence, to overcome this, the medicos had urged for a reduction in the cut-off percentile.