25% MBBS seats in deemed varsities in state fall vacant

Chennai: At least a quarter of MBBS seats in deemed universities in Tamil Nadu were vacant after the second round of online counselling compared to the all-India average of 12% vacancies.A total of 1,188 MBBS seats out of the 9,737 in the 50 deemed universities across the country were vacant after the allotment by the medical counseling committee under the directorate general of health services. Nearly half of these vacancies were in Tamil Nadu. The state has 11 deemed universities with 2,350 MBBS seats. Of these, 584 seats are vacant after round two of counselling. This includes more than 76% seats in Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, 54% of the seats in ACS Medical College and Hospital, 58% of seats in Bhaarath Medical College and Hospital, and 45% of seats in Vels Medical College and Hospital.“If students don’t join the allotted seats the vacancies are likely to increase,” said the vice-chancellor of a deemed university. These vacancies are not unusual after round two, as students don’t want to get locked by paying 25 lakh fee when they have chances of getting seats with a much lower fee under government or management quota. However, college managements are worried this year as the central counselling committee has said it will not return seats to the colleges for the stray round. “Counselling rules should have tightened so seats don’t remain vacant. It is unfair to leave so many seats vacant,” a senior official in a deemed university said.Meanwhile, the state selection committee released the results of the second round of MBBS/BDS counselling for state quota seats in government colleges and all seats in self-financing colleges and private medical universities. The OC cut-off for government college was 602, while BC cut-off was 556 and BCM was 541. The last mark of the candidate to be allotted an MBBS seat in a government college was 355 (ST). For government quota seats in private colleges, the OC cut-off was 502, BC was 493 and BCM was 481 and the last candidate to enter private college had a score of 301.All government quota MBBS seats in government or self-financing colleges were allotted. All seats in government dental colleges were also allotted at the end of round two. At least 82 management quota MBBS seats, 156 government quota BDS seats in self-financing colleges, and 87 management quota BDS seats in self-financing colleges were vacant after the allotment.