look news india
Every year lakhs of youth across the country prepare for the medical entrance examination with moist eyes and dreams in their hearts. By working day and night, attending coaching classes and struggling for every mark, they also qualify NEET. But this year, the pictures that have emerged after the last phase of the All India Counseling process have surprised everyone. Despite lakhs of candidates appearing, hundreds of MBBS seats meant for becoming doctors in medical colleges across the country remain completely vacant. On one hand, students yearn for each and every seat, while on the other hand, eligible students who cleared the cut-off have been forced to return empty handed from the counseling center without taking admission. This situation is no less than a big shock for those families who had dreamed of making their children doctors.
The biggest reason behind this unprecedented crisis and vacant seats has emerged as the exorbitant and unbridled fee structure of deemed universities and private medical colleges. The last round of Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) report shows that the tuition fee for one MBBS seat in private institutions located in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and other parts of the country has reached Rs 23 lakh to Rs 35 lakh annually. If hostel, mess and other hidden administrative expenses are added to this, the total budget for four and a half years of study crosses Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 1.50 crore. It is completely impossible for families with middle class or ordinary economic background to pay such a huge amount. Even bank loan limits are not able to cover such a huge amount, due to which deserving students have to give up their seats despite appearing in the merit list.
If we look at the figures, this year the NEET UG process is about to end, but the figures of medical colleges are worrying. According to reports, even after the final round of Stray Vacancy and All India Quota, more than 830 MBBS seats across the country remain vacant without admission. In the deemed universities of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry alone, there are more than 824 seats on which no student has come to take admission due to the fear of huge fees. In many renowned institutions, where earlier all the seats were filled in the third round itself, this time the seats remained vacant despite a huge drop in the cut-off ranks. This is direct evidence that students are no longer willing to push themselves and their families into lifelong financial debt just to get a degree.
After the seats remain vacant, now the eyes of the candidates and parents are fixed on the next step of the Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) and the Health Ministry. The question arising is whether the government will organize any special stray vacancy round to fill these vacant seats? However, experts and education experts believe that unless any national policy or capping is implemented on the fees of private medical colleges, even conducting additional counseling will not bring any significant change in the ground situation. If the fees remain the same, students will hesitate to take admission again. Many student organizations have also raised the demand that the Central Government should immediately make strict rules to fix the fees of deemed universities so that the promising youth of the country can get a fair opportunity to study on the basis of their talent.