As if NEET-PG counselling wasn't riddled with enough problems and potholes, here comes another issue. This time, it has cropped up in Telangana for the students of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS). Many merit doctors have lost their eligibility to participate in the NEET-PG counselling process. Discussing the matter, the junior doctors from KNRUHS had called a press meet at Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad.
The junior doctors had secured seats in the State Round-2 of NEET-PG Counselling. This round had been conducted very early, the students claim, on March 23 and 24, even before the All India Mop-Up Round had been announced. This was not fair, say the students, as it is not allowed to conduct the State Round before the All India Mop-Up Round. This is against the rules of the Medical Counselling Committee and the Director General of Health Services (DGHS). However, when the MCC announced the dates for the AIQ Mop-Up Round, on March 31, 2022, the KNRUHS students had participated in it, but, to do so, had forfeited their secured seats.
“The university encouraged us to do this,” says Dr Harshika, a junior doctor who had secured a seat in the university. “They asked us to resign our seats and also told us that we can opt for a free exit,” she adds. The decision to not appear for counselling after securing a seat and thus giving up the seat is referred to as free exit, just so you know. The MCC doesn’t permit the free exit option for Round-2 counselling. “The university misguided us,” claims Dr Abhinav G, another junior doctor suffering the same fate.
To recall, the NEET-PG AIQ Mop-Up Round was cancelled by the Supreme Court due to issues over the OBC and EWS quota reservations. “The Supreme Court had ordered that either allow all the students or screen everyone (speaking about allowed quotas). And later it was decided to be cancelled for everyone,” recalled Dr Abhinav. The NEET-PG Mop-Up Round this year also faced a row over the later addition of an extra 146 seats. However, after the cancellation was announced, the junior doctors were in a fix. They had already lost their seats as well as the eligibility to participate in the State Mop-Up Round.
When they demanded their seats back from the university, they were denied. The university has decided to conduct the State Mop-Up Round, despite these junior doctors being against it. “The university says that they will not cancel their Mop-Up,” laments Dr Harshika. “It is their responsibility to call us back. But they are silent,” Dr Abhinav pipes in. “We have also approached them with court orders, but there has been no response,” he adds. The case had been earlier heard on April 11 in the Supreme Court and Justice DY Chandrachud had ordered the State Mop-Up to be cancelled and the Round- 2 seats to be allotted back.
Dr Abhinav has also informed that the junior doctors who are facing the same issue had approached the Health Minister also, but they haven’t received any satisfactory response from there as well. Both he and Dr Harshika state that the Telangana doctors are not the only ones to face this problem. “In Maharashtra, Gujarat, Puducherry, Jharkhand and Bihar, the same problem has cropped up almost all over India,” says the latter. “But all the states took these doctors back, gave them their secured seats and cancelled their Mop-Up Rounds. It is the KNRUHS which isn’t ready to do so,” Dr Abhinav further adds.
As to the future course of action regarding the matter, the junior doctors state that they have spoken about their problems in detail on April 20, Wednesday, at the Osmania Juda Room. Though the meeting was a bit rushed, they are hoping that their issue will now come to the fore and will be addressed soon. Dr Abhinav says that, as of now, they are not planning to approach the court once more, but may talk to the Health Minister again.
Commenting on the overall situation, Dr Harshika says that “it is an injustice to merits. Over 12,000 rank holders from Telangana are suffering”. “The university has not responded to anything since March 31,” Dr Abhinav adds. He also says that the university says it will try to offer them seats if any are left after the Mop-Up round. “But we want merit-based seats back,” he puts his foot down firmly.
