In service doctors secure 90 percent of PG seats in Tamil Nadu

Apprehensions about PG medical admissions and boycott of work to demand a better deal notwithstanding, in-service government doctors have this year appropriated almost all postgraduate seats in government colleges, even without a high score in NEET-PG.

A provisional merit list released by the state selection committee for postgraduate degree and diploma seats in government colleges, government quota in self-financing colleges and Raja Muthiah Medical College, only 25 of 4,294 candidates are from the non-service-category. In the first phase of counselling, 709 government doctors were allotted seats, versus 13 from the non-service-category.

“This was expected and we had little time to do anything about it. We were forced to follow the high court order,” selection committee secretary G Selvaraju said.
On April 17, a single judge of the Madras high court ruled that Tamil Nadu must follow the latest MCI regulations in awarding of incentive marks to in-service candidates. As against a maximum of 10 marks under state rules, the MCI regulation envisaged a maximum of 30% of marks scored by a candidate in the NEET-PG examination as service incentive. Government doctors perceived it as a setback, filed appeals and went on strike. After a division bench delivered a split verdict, the third judge upheld the MCI rules, paving the way for award of 30% of NEET-PG score as incentive for canddiates. It ushered in a single rank list scheme and did away with reserving 50% of available seats in the government quota for inservice candidates.


As a result, this year, almost all PG medical seats on offer have been bagged by service candidates. For instance, the first non-service candidate to get a seat was Dr Mohamed Thariq S, who scored 1,109 in NEET-PG. He was called after 514 government doctors, many of whom scored less than him but bagged seats in the prestigious Madras Medical College (MMC). Another candidate, Dr Srinivasan M, with 1,102 in NEETPG, ranked fourth in the state after the state added 330.74 marks (30% of his NEET score) for three years of service in government hospitals. He was allotted MD (radio diagnosis) seat in MMC.


Health department officials agree that this is not a fair way to conduct counselling. “We are framing rules for impartial incentives. A committee comprising of various bodies of doctors and the government are in the panel to ensure fair play . It will be introduced from the next academic year,” health secretary J Radhakrishnan said.

400 percent hike in fees for PG seats in AP this year

HYDERABAD: The proposal by private medical colleges in the state to increase the tuition fees for post-graduate medical courses by a whopping 400 per cent has stunned students and junior doctors. 

The Telangana Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association (TPMDCA) has recommended to the state government to increase the tuition fee for PG courses from `3.2 lakh per year to `12 lakh per year. If accepted, students will have to shell out anywhere between `36 lakh for a three-year course as against `10 lakh they are paying currently. For management seats, the annual fee of `5.8 lakh will go up to a whooping `25 lakh.

“A similar notification has been issued by private medical colleges in AP and we fear we could be facing a similar situation soon,” wondered Dr G Srinivas, president of Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Telangana has 1,400 medical seats which are equally distributed between private and government colleges. Of the 700 seats, 350 are filled under the convener quota and the remaining 350 seats under the management quota.Meanwhile, medicos said that they will think of their course of action if their pleas fail to get any response from the government. 

Bihar scraps PG medical counselling over quota issues

The Bihar government, on Friday, admitted that it had violated reservation rules in filling up post-graduate medical seats, and announced its decision to scrap the entire ongoing counselling process.

Announcing the government decision, principal secretary, health, R K Mahajan said, fresh counselling would be conducted on May 28 and 29, so as to complete the admission process by May 31, which was the Supreme Court prescribed deadline for PG admissions.

The Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (BCECEB) will now re-convene counselling for 449 PG seats on offer in six government-run medical colleges of the state, affecting nearly 850 students vying for these seats.

The seats are at the Patna Medical College Hospital, Nalanda Medical College Hospital (both in Patna), Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (Darbhanga), Anugraha Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital (Gaya), Jawaharal Nehru Medical College and the Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (Muzaffarpur).

Of the 449 PG seats on offer, 350 are degree and 99 diploma seats, said Mahajan. He said these also included 136 degree and 32 diploma seats, which were vacant under the central government quota and reverted to the state. 

Asked if the government would take action against officials responsible for the lapse, he said,  “We will initiate an inquiry before taking any action.”

Asked if there was a hint of a scam in the matter at hand, Mahajan said, “The problem arose because of wrong interpretation of rules. There is no scam as such.”

He said combined counselling would be done for medicos this time, as against the previous practice of holding it separately in a phase-wise manner for general and reserved category students.

He said students of the reserved category, who compete on merit, would be given the option to exercise their choice of opting for merit or reserved seat only once. “Having exercised their choice once, students of the reserved category will not be able to change it,” he added.

Earlier, students of reserved category, who qualified on merit, used to take up general seats and then re-appear in counselling for reserved category medicos. Having got admission in an institution of choice, the general seat, which they subsequently vacated, was then filled up by a candidate under reserved category, thus whittling down the number of seats available to medicos under general category.

It was this arrangement, which the medicos were opposing when they were caned during counselling in front of the BCECEB office here last Tuesday. 

Mahajan said the government would transfer the admission fee in case there was any change of college in fresh counselling.

Additional secretary, health, Pradeep Kumar Jha, was also present during the media interface

Source: HT

50 percent PG seats to In Service doctors in Gujrat: SC

The Supreme Court today directed the Gujarat government to give 50 per cent reservation to the in-service candidates for admission to post-graduate medical diploma courses as per the regulations of the Medical Council of India.

The apex court directed the state government to grant the reservation to these candidates in the second round of counselling, starting tomorrow for admissions in PG courses.

The in-service medical officers are those who work for the government or public authority in remote rural and difficult areas.

A bench, comprising Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar, also asked the state government to define remote rural or difficult areas in which the in-service medical officers will be working.

The Gujarat High Court had on May 5 dismissed the petition of in-service medical petitioners on the ground that it was not mandatory for the state government to follow the rules and regulations issued by the Medical Council of India, particularly the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000.

The medicos have challenged the state government order of granting only 25 per cent reservation to the in-service candidates for admission in PG medical diploma courses.

The plea, filed by GMS Class II Medical Officers’ Association before the apex court through advocate Ankit Shah, said the state government had issued a notification on April 21 by which the seats allocated to in-service candidates were restricted only to diploma courses and excluded degree courses for the current academic year without providing any reasonable reason.

The petitioners said the issue involved a substantial question of law of public importance and its adjudication will have an impact on the large number of in-service medical officers working in rural areas in Gujarat.

“As per regulation IV of the MCI Regulation, 2000, it is mandatory that while determining the merit of candidates who are in-service of Government/Public Authority, an incentive of 10 per cent of the marks obtained for each year of service in remote and/or difficult areas upto the maximum of 30 per cent of the marks obtained in NEET may be given by the Government/ Public Authority.

“As per regulation VII of the MCI Regulations, 2000, it is mandatory for the state to reserve 50 per cent of the total seats of government medical college in Post Graduate Diploma Courses for medical officers in the government service, who has served at least 3 years in remote and/or difficult areas,” their petition said.

It said the state government had declined to adopt the mandate of incentive and 50 per cent reservation in accordance with the MCI Regulation, 2000 and the High Court has dismissed the petition affirming the said impugned action of the state government.

NEET PG 2016 cheating scam

Investigation into the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) examination paper hack has revealed that about 200 students allegedly ‘cleared’ the test and got admission in prominent medical colleges across the country, police said. The exam was held in December 2016 to admit students into postgraduate medical courses.

Police have so far arrested three persons, including two BTech students, who allegedly charged a huge amount — ranging between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 1 crore — from aspirants after assuring them of a good rank in the exam.

On April 29, The Indian Express first reported that the Central Range of Crime Branch had cracked the case with the arrest of two persons — Abhishek Singh and Atul Vats — and found that computer servers were allegedly hacked during the exam.

“The third arrest was made a few days ago from Greater Noida. The accused, identified as Hansul, was arrested after Vats disclosed his name. He told police that he helped four candidates who appeared for the exam in Greater Noida and cleared it,” police sources said, adding that they have recovered Rs 25 lakh from Singh and Vats.

Sources said after conducting a thorough investigation, a team led by ACP (central range) Sandeep Lamba found that 200 applicants cleared the exam.
Investigators are likely to

approach them in the coming days. “Police have so far identified three examination centres — Chandigarh, Ranchi and Greater Noida — from where the server was allegedly hacked. Police have conducted raids in all these centres and found there were no CCTV cameras in the server rooms,” the sources added.

Police said raids are also being conducted in Delhi, Bengaluru, Bihar and other cities to nab the remaining accused, including some doctors who allegedly sat with the accused and solved the paper.

“Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik recently received an anonymous complaint, which provided details of some of the doctors who allegedly cleared their exams after paying money. The letter was forwarded to the Central Range of the Crime Branch. They have started scanning details of these students,” sources said.

On January 20, police received information that some people cleared the online medical entrance examination, held between December 5 and December 13, by hacking the servers.

Explaining the modus-operandi of the gang, police said the accused zeroed in on aspirants and struck a deal with them after taking a hefty amount. Vats met a person looking after the software used for the examination and roped him in. Singh, meanwhile, asked some doctors for help. The doctors would sit in a hotel in Dwarka and take the exam from there,” a senior officer said.

“On the day of the examination, the candidate at the examination centre would be able to send the questions to the doctors as the servers were compromised. The paper was solved by experts sitting in a hotel in Dwarka, who would send the answers back
to them,” an officer said.