Non-TN students also eligible for medical seat

The increase in the number of students upset with the ongoing medical counselling due to a few candidates qualifying for seats in more than one state has opened the Pandora’s box in medical admissions.

Even though NEET was introduced to create uniformity in the admission procedure to Medical and dental colleges across the country and to give equal opportunity for every medical aspirant, the purpose of the landmark move seems to have been defeated as the eligibility criterion for students qualifying for a seat differs from state to state.

The lack of a mention in the prospectus that students cannot apply in more than one state (if eligible) has created a window for some students to apply in more than one state thus giving them an advantage over others.

Dr Edwin Joe, director of medical education, said that it was unfair that some students could apply in more than one state. “Though not a violation, it can be unfair to some students who featured lower in the rank list. It is not a violation to feature in the rank list of two states. It was not mentioned in the prospectus as we were not sure until the last minute, on what our mode of admission would be. If a student is from Kerala and has studied in TN for five years, he is eligible to apply here under the general category, and in Kerala under any quota. We never anticipated this problem,” he added.