Finding few takers, norms for govt-quota BDS seats relaxed

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, September 21

The Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER), Punjab, today relaxed the norms to fill government-quota BDS seats in 14 dental colleges in the state as over 75 per cent such seats have not been able to get PMET-2016 qualified candidates.

Earlier, these 623 government-quota BDS seats were to be filled on the basis of PMET-2016. But now, students who had appeared in the NEET-2016 are also eligible for these BDS seats on the basis of merit.

To fill these seats from among NEET-2016 candidates, the state Medical Education Department will give first preference to a Punjab resident. However, if seats still remain vacant, then candidates from other states who have appeared in NEET are also eligible for these seats, said Dr SP Singh, Registrar, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), today.

The 14 dental colleges in Punjab, including two government dental institutes, offer a total of 1,190 BDS seats. While 623 seats are under government quota, 567 seats are the management and NRI quota seats in the state.

While the full course fee for the BDS course in government dental colleges (Rs 3.8 lakh) is comparatively much lower than private dental colleges (Rs 7.65 lakh for government quota and Rs 10.2 lakh for management quota), as many as 17 seats in government dental colleges were vacated by students in the first round of counselling today.

In 12 private dental colleges, 431 students vacated their government quota seats and the number of such candidates was 317 under the management quota. At the end of the first counselling, all 14 dental colleges could only fill 214 out of total 1,190 BDS seats, so the Medical Education Department decided to relax the condition to fill the vacant seats in the second and third round of counselling, revealed sources. 

163 vacate MBBS seats 

As many as 163 medical students in the state on Wednesday vacated their government-quota MBBS seats in seven medical colleges in the state to join the medical colleges in Delhi, Chandigarh and Rajasthan. 

Besides the better academic infrastructure in the medical colleges in other states, the much lower tuition fee for MBBS courses in these states — compared to Punjab — is the main reason for meritorious students opting for these medical colleges.

After the end of the first  counselling to fill 1,000 MBBS seats in seven medical colleges in the state, 163 students vacated their government-quota seats and 90 students have not joined their management quota seats.