Not many takers for medical seats this year

INDORE: For the first time, government and private medical/dental colleges are not finding enough takers this year. While medical seats are sold for crores down in the southern states, admission scenario in Madhya Pradesh is dismal even as fees here is two to three times less than other states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Despite a two-day extension to the first counselling, nearly 20-40% seats are lying vacant in government and private medical colleges of the state.At Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College (MGM), 88 seats were allotted after the first centralized counselling that concluded on Saturday.
Coordinator, centralized counselling MGM, Dr Sanjay Dixit said, "Out of 120 seats, 88 seats got filled up after the first counselling. MGM is the most sought after college in state and seats get filled up early. While candidates had registered for counselling, they did not report. Reason behind dismal scenario is beyond comprehension."
He added that in five private medical/dental colleges, maximum 40% seats have filled up so far. "We are hopeful that candidates will turn up in second counselling, which will be held on September 25 and 26," said Dr Dixit.
Sources also attributed the poor response to simultaneous counselling being held in other states.
They said that the other reason is that private medical colleges in state will be forfeiting one-year fee (nearly 6 lakh) once a candidate lock a seat and not take admission. Two private colleges including Modern Medical College and Amaltas Medical College have conditional permission to take admission following Supreme Court intervention and Medical Council of India (MCI) rejecting recognition to them.
Director, medical education department, Dr G S Patel said, "It is hard to comprehend why candidates are not appearing in counselling. Is it confusion created by private medical colleges/universities or any other reason behind, we need to investigate."