Raising the issue of high cut-off scores for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) or NEET-PG 2021, some associations of doctors are demanding revision of cut-off before the PG NEET mop-up rounds begin. Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) has written a letter to Union Health Minister in this regard. The FORDA said that more than 6,000 seats are still lying vacant for the final or mop-up round and there will be a wastage of a large number of seats if more candidates are not allowed to participate in the ongoing counseling.
The current cutoff marks for NEET PG 2021 is 302 for unreserved category (UR), 265 for the reserved categories (SC/ST/OBC) and it is 283 for the reserved categories of people with disabilities.
“It is pertinent to mention that the cut-off percentile for being eligible to appear in NEET-PG counseling is reduced every year before the final round to allowed maximum participation of candidates to avoid wastage of precious seats in healthcare institutions. For the current year, in the Mop up (Final) Round, more than 6000 seats are still lying vacant…Under the above-mentioned circumstances, we would hereby request you to kindly take note of the issue and to take necessary measures for avoiding wastage of several Board-speciality seats,” the FORDA said in the letter.
Similarly, Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has written a letter to highlight the problem of high cutoff scores for NEET PG 2021.
“After the unprecedented delay in the NEET-PG 2021 counselling process, almost an entire academic year has been wasted, and now a high cutoff score means that medical students who fail to meet the cutoff criteria, will not be able to enter medical colleges, thereby causing these seats to go vacant and wasting once more precious year of their lives for the preparation of the next NEET-PG exam,” the FAIMA said in a letter to the National Medical Commission.
The FAIMA said that it could further deplete the medical manpower pool in India as medical students will have no other option but to travel overseas to pursue their dream field of postgraduation. “We cannot afford to lose such precious gems, especially at a time when we need a full-blown medical army to protect citizens from upcoming variants of COVID or any other epidemic that may occur,” it added.
Hoping for early intervention in the matter, the FAIMA said that the time has come for the administration to recognise doctors for their selfless service by reducing the cut-off marks.