J&K MBBS aspirants await boost with 400 additional seats in 2nd round
Srinagar, Sep 2: The National Medical Commission (NMC) may grant permission to 400 additional MBBS seats in J&K for the upcoming academic session, the seats likely to be available in the current second round of counseling. However, no official communication has yet been received by the Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) that have applied for seat enhancement. Last week, NMC Chairperson, Dr Abhijat Sheth, said medical colleges in India would increase their seats by around 8000, UG and PG seats combined, for this academic year. The seats will be increased as per the applications received by the medical colleges and based on the reports of the inspections that were underway.
The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has also issued a notice that the seat increase is in process and would likely be included in Round 2 of counseling.
Chairperson J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE), Prof Minu Mahajan, said that no information had been received from the medical colleges about any increase in seats.
“We too have heard that seats will be increased, but we have not received any information on this,” she said.
The NMC teams carried out inspection of many new medical colleges in J&K in August.
A Principal of a GMC in J&K said that the NMC team “gave a positive response” and the chances of securing an increase of 50 seats were expected.
“We are hopeful we will get the seats. We have satisfied all the criteria but were short on faculty. However, this is a universal problem, and we hope the NMC will issue LoP,” he said.
However, an official said that the seat increase may not be 400 as expected.
“Some medical colleges in J&K were unable to complete the documentation in time, and they have lost the chance this year,” he said.
The first round of counseling for MBBS had 1007 seats across the GMCs of J&K, including the new medical colleges.
In addition, ASCOMS Jammu, a private medical college, has an intake capacity of 100 seats, while AIIMS Vijaypur also has an intake capacity of 62 students.
The NMC had invited applications for an increase in undergraduate seats over the end of last year, in response of which, the J&K government had directed all the medical colleges here to apply. Many aspirants from J&K who have scored well but have been unable to bag a seat in the first round of counseling have pinned their hopes on the seat increase.
