Medical admissions to be brought under government control

The Central Health Ministry has written to the Principal Secretaries of state regarding a change in counselling and admission procedures for medical courses. The notification says that the state government will have complete control over medical counselling in both government and private colleges. 
 

The notification is an amendment to Graduate Medical Education Regulation, 1997 and Postgraduate Medical Education Regulation, 2000. The move aims to control circumvention of merit seats and practice of capitation fee in medical admission. With the new amendment, students won't have to apply to each college separately. 
 

After the government had implemented National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the medical council had recommended common counselling for admission. Kerala had already enforced common counselling as self-financing colleges refused to cede to government's request to enforce the fee structure fixed by the state. 
 

However, private colleges managed to get a High Court order against government decision and were planning to proceed with admissions as per their own terms. 
 

As per new regulation, the state will be responsible for setting up the infrastructure to conduct counselling sessions according to NEET scores. The counselling must be completed by May 31. 
 

• Medical admissions
• NEET
• self-financing colleges
• Graduate Medical Education Regulation
• Postgraduate Medical Education Regulation