Counselling for MBBS burns a hole in candidates’ pockets

Vijayawada: Counselling for NEET UG 2018 has become expensive for the MBBS candidates. The students with an average performance in NEET are the most affected in the process, as they have no choice but to register to more than one counselling to find a best-suited college for themselves.
The first phase of NEET-MCC counselling has ended. NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) is in the process of verifying student documents, as part of the counselling.A student has to pay a total of Rs 9,000 just to attend NTRUHS counselling for just one category, of which, Rs 3,000 toward registration fee and Rs 6,000 for counselling.
The university has issued notifications for A, B, and C categories on June 19. Students who register for A category cannot participate in B and C categories, and vice versa. So, the students who want to participate in all the three categories end up paying a total of Rs 18,000. The fees are the same for Telangana counselling organized by Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS).
According to G Anuradha, co-registrar for college admissions at NTRUHS, about 13,300 candidates have registered in A category counselling. The due date to register for B and C categories is till June 30, she said.
All the fees are just for the counselling. To get admitted in the college, the students have to pay the university development fee, along with the tuition fee. The university fee is about Rs 25,000 for B category students, and about 65,000 for the students of C category.
NEET-MCC counselling is even more expensive. M Akhila Mithra, a NEET UG candidate, ended up paying Rs 2.05 lakhs toward counselling. She paid Rs 5,000 for registration and Rs 2 lakh deposit to add the list of deemed universities to the counselling. After phase II counselling, if students reject the allotted seats at deemed universities, they lose the deposit. If accepted, the deposit would be paid toward their tuition fee.