Under Puducherry's Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC), students were admitted to MBBS and BDS courses after September 30, which was the cut-off date proposed by the National Medical Commission (NMC). As such, the students' admissions are now at the risk of being declared invalid, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
In a public notice on October 19, the NMC stated that all central/state governments and medical colleges had been directed to strictly adhere to the fixed counselling schedule for the academic session 2023-24 for undergraduate medical courses. Citing Supreme Court orders, the NMC stated, "hence any counselling, if carried out by the Central Authorities/State authorities/Medical colleges shall be considered to be invalid and the students admitted, if any, shall be discharged immediately."
The Puducherry government delayed the counselling process and has not adhered to the NMC schedule, even though forums and political parties raised concerns about it. In order to provide 10 per cent reservation to government school students in medical admissions, the government had waited for the centre's approval, thereby delaying the whole process. Only the first round of MBBS counselling under the government quota was completed before the cut-off date.
The second round for 34 MBBS seats and subsequent rounds were done in October, with the belief that NMC would grant an extension of time according to the government's request, since several other states like Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal had also not completed the process by September 30. However, after the issuance of the said notice, utter confusion prevails and the authorities are in a quandary.
AIADMK Deputy Secretary Vaiyapuri Manikandan faulted the chief minister and officials for not obeying the rules and putting the future of the students in jeopardy. He said that medical students who were admitted after the deadline in 2016 were disqualified due to the negligence of the Puducherry Government and CENTAC officials. They only got recognition after a long legal battle. A similar situation has been created by the chief minister and CENTAC at present, he added, as per The New Indian Express.
However, CENTAC officials said that they are positive about the centre granting them an extension of time since the centre has yet to reply to their request letter. Moreover, the grounds for the delay are genuine as the counselling process could begin only after the centre's approval for a 10 per cent reservation, added an official.
