Justice delayed is justice denied: NEET candidates
With the Supreme Court lifting the ban on declaration of entrance exam results for MBBS and medical postgraduate courses, the battle between Medical Council of India (MCI) and private medical colleges seems to have come to a halt. However, the PG aspirants of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) feel justice delayed is justice denied. Seriously affected by the ban, which was imposed in December 2012, they have been having sleepless nights for the past five months. The original date of declaration of results was January 31.
“After tareekh pe tareekh, the verdict has come now. At such a crucial point in our career, we were doing nothing but just sitting at home counting every minute, day and hour. Do 90,000 medicos deserve such treatment?” said one who completed his MBBS from Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital, Mumbai. He is one of the 8,000 candidates from the state who appeared in the NEET-PG test conducted by the National Board of Exam (NBE) in October-November 2012.
According to the data provided by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, there are 605 seats available in 14 state- and corporation-owned medical colleges. Out of these, 490 are PG and 115 are diploma. An equal number of seats is available for all-India quota. Besides this, six to seven private colleges, such as Bombay hospital and Sancheti hospital in Pune, admit 100 students through NEET.
Over 90,000 candidates took the test across India which was said to be a “common national exam” for admission to medical and dental PG courses in government and private medical colleges. However, AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh, PGI Lucknow and some private medical colleges were exempted from it.
The candidates now want immediate declaration of results and admission. Dr Sumit Nitnaware, who completed his MBBS from Topiwala Medical College and Nair hospital, Mumbai, said, “We have already been tortured a lot. NBE should declare the result immediately and complete the process within a month to save us from more trouble.”
This time, the MCI advanced the test by two months without any clarification, thus increasing the waiting period. The court, however, has not extended the admission schedule which was to be finished by May 31 according to another SC verdict. “After NBE declares the result, the admission for all-India seats will be done first. Only then can we start admission on the 50% state quota seats,” said a DMER official.