First round of PG medical counselling completed

Unlike last year, the first round of counselling for admissions to PG medical and dental courses in Puducherry was conducted through Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) within the stipulated time frame and without any major incident.

Rudra Goud, Convenor, Centac, said the process of admission was online which made it easier. “Although a few private medical institutions had approached the court for a stay order unwilling to allocate 50% of the seats for government quota, they had to abide by the MCI rules as they have not removed the government quota seats,” he added.

There was no stay on the Centac admissions. “We have finished the first round of admissions for PG medical and dental courses. The second round of admissions will be completed by April 25,” he said.

In the first phase of counselling, overall 126 students were allotted seats in the medical courses. Of which, 83 were under the government quota and 43 were under the management quota.

For the dental courses, overall 21 students were allotted seats. Of which, 13 were allotted seats under the government quota and 8 under the management quota.

The Centac had said the candidates who had selected their seats through counselling would have to join by 3.30 p.m. on April 20.

The candidates would have to transfer the fee fixed and notified by the Government of Puducherry to the Centac account through payment gateway on the Centac website.

The fee collected by the Centac would be transferred to the colleges concerned on a regular basis.

A press release issued by the Centac said that in case of any grievance or difficulty in admission process, the candidates were requested to submit their grievances during office hours to Dr. Nilamani, grievance officers, Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services, Government of Puducherry.

Second phase

“The candidates can participate in the second round without any limitation. After the joining time, the vacant seats will be notified and the interested candidates need to enter the preferences. If a candidate is allotted a seat in the second round of counselling and he or she joins, then the candidate is not eligible for the mop up counselling. If the candidate does not join the seat allotted in the second round, but wants to participate in mop-up round, then the candidate has to deposit ₹25,000 (half of that for SC/ST/BC) for government college and ₹2,00,000 for self-financing college as panel fee. The student has to forefeit the amount if he or she takes a seat during the mop-up session,” Centac convenor said.

As per the government order of April 4, 2018 of Health Secretariat, Government of Puducherry, the management quota seats in the minority colleges were reserved for the minority candidates of the Union Territory of Puducherry. If the seats were not filled even after second round, they would be converted into management quota seats for candidates of Puducherry and remaining seats available, if any, would be filled on all- India basis during the mop-up counselling.