MBBS aspirants can now upgrade college seats till third counselling round

The earlier policy, known as the mop-up round, was in practice for five years and has now been withdrawn to give benefit to students of the third round

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has decided to allow medical aspirants to upgrade their choice of colleges up to the third round of the counselling process.

Since 2018, the medical counselling committee (MCC) of the DGHS has been allowing upgradation of choices only till the second round. This implied that students did not get a chance to try their luck even if better seats were available in the third round, according to a report in The Times of India (TOI).

The third round was only open for students without seats.

However, if students do not join the seats allotted to them in the second or the third round, they will lose their refundable deposit, which is Rs 10,000 for all-India quota seats and central institutions, and Rs 2 lakh for deemed universities.

An official from the union health ministry said that the earlier policy, called the mop-up round, was in practice for five years and has now been withdrawn to give benefit to students of the third round.

"This is to ensure that meritorious students do not lose out on a seat of their choice,” the official said.

The MCC conducts four admission rounds in all. The four rounds of counselling include two regular rounds, a mop-up counselling round, and one all-India quota stray vacancy.

The NEET-UG counselling process, for admissions to 15 per cent all-India quota seats, deemed and central universities, and all All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), will commence from July 20, according to the TOI report.

According to a brochure released by the MCC for all-India quota admission on Tuesday, students who are allotted seats in the stray round (fourth one) and do not join them will be debarred from participating in the NEET-UG admission process for two years and they will lose their deposit money.

A parent said that with no chance to upgrade, meritorious students were deprived of choosing these seats, and students with lower merit ranks were getting the benefit.

Parent representative Sudha Shenoy said that there was no exit option after the second round of counselling.

"Now, students can not only upgrade their choices for the third round, but the ones without seats can also register afresh for the stray round," Shenoy said.

Only students with no seats will be eligible for the last round. Like last year, no seats will be reverted to the states after the completion of the second round.