Only eight apply for 45 MD, MS seats in Punjab under NRI quota

Tribune News Service

Balwant Garg

Faridkot, September 18

With admission to postgraduate (PG) medical and dental courses underway, there are a few takers for the NRI quota seats in private colleges across the state. Reason: High tuition fee in comparison with that of the management quota seats.

Huge fee disparity

$1.25 lakh (Rs 1 cr) Tuition fee for NRI candidates

Rs 19.50 lakh Fee for management quota seat

There are 35 NRI seats in medical colleges and 10 in dental institutions. Only eight candidates have applied for the 45 seats — four each from Punjab and other states.

Private colleges charge US $1.25 lakh (about Rs 1 crore) as tuition fee for an MD/MS clinical seat from NRI candidates, while the fee for a seat under the management quota is Rs 19.50 lakh.

The fee in government colleges is Rs 4.5 lakh for a seat under the management quota. The counselling for MD and MS courses is underway and the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) has released the provisional merit list of the candidates on the basis of their score in the NEET-PG examination. The university has invited objections to the merit list, if

any. The revised provisional merit list will be displayed next week after having considered all objections.

The first round of online counselling will begin on September 23, said the BFUHS Registrar. The medical counselling committee, which regulates the admissions to medical colleges, on Friday offered a chance to candidates to change their caste category (SC, ST, OBC and EWS) to “Unreserved” and the nationality from “NRI” to “Indian”.

In a public notice, the committee said the candidates who had inadvertently filled their category as SC, ST, EWS or OBC in the registration form of the National Board of Examination but later realised that they were unable to claim the reserved category seat due to any reason, they can change their category.

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