Health Secretary gives MBBS seat letters to govt quota students

A total of 5,822 seats are for MBBS and 1,430 for BDS in the State. For government school students, direct counselling was conducted. Under the quota, 2,152 applications were received from government school students. On counselling day, 762 students were invited and 739 attended.

There are 544 medical seats available under the reservation, of which 325 are for MBBS in government medical colleges and 113 in self-financed colleges. At least 13 BDS seats will be allocated in government dental colleges, while 94 in self-financed dental colleges. The NEET scores of government school students ranged between 561 and 181 this year.

On Friday, after the counselling, three BDS vacancies were yet to be filled.

Radhakrishnan said the regular counselling would be held online from January 30 to February 7 for MBBS seats and certificate verification for ESI hospitals and dental colleges from February 8 to 11. The final allotment will be done after that.

The officials from the selection committee said the online counselling will be on a merit basis and it also allowed candidates to opt for their college of choice. College change would be subject to availability of seats and re-allotment and certificate verification will be done the same way.

Meanwhile, a 61-year-old retired teacher, Sivaprakasam, from Dharmapuri, who had written and passed the NEET exam, did not attend the counselling process on Friday. He was ranked 249 under the quota.

"The criteria for admissions also include the marks obtained in Class 12, in the last four years. Since he had passed NEET, we had to invite him to counselling. We had asked senior officials for clarity on this and if he could be admitted. However, Sivaprakasam himself decided to not attend the counselling," said the secretary of the selection committee, Dr P Vasanthamani.