Names of another 44 NEET-qualified students from Puducherry go missing in UT list

Another 44 students selected under the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from Yanam in Puducherry discovered that their names were missing from the list of Puducherry's domicile students in the Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) portal of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Government of India. 

This comes after another 14 NEET students had found that they were left out of the list. They approached Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Monday, January 24, and then called on the Health Secretary and Director of Health and Family Welfare seeking rectification for admissions in JIPMER under the domicile quota.

Some of them with high ranks face the same trouble obtaining admissions to JIPMER under the Puducherry quota, as there are no provisions to apply separately. Only students whose names figure in the NEET merit list of the domicile students will be considered for counselling.  

Meanwhile, President of the Students Parents Welfare Association, V Balasubramanian, advised students to seek legal assistance, following which, they travelled to Chennai to discuss the matter with advocates.

Meanwhile, DGHS and Nodal officer NEET, Dr G Sriramulu, had written to Dr B Srinivas ADG (ME) and Member Secretary of the MCC again on Monday, urging him to enable a Puducherry Domicile option in the MCC portal, so as to enable the students to enroll in the JIPMER MBBS counselling. 

While enclosing the list of the 44 students, Sriramulu said that they have approached the department to enable access to the Puducherry Domicile for enrolling in counselling. On verification, it is found that the said students seem to have entered as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh or Kerala instead of Puducherry in the field of "State/UT from where 12th/Equivalent Passed/Appearing" in the NEET application. Hence, their names were missing in the Puducherry list, he said.

The 14 students have been included in the CENTAC merit list of 1,633 students, based on their applications along with documents for residency. However, the status of the 44 students on the CENTAC merit list is unknown.