BDS admission cut-off lowered, experts upset

Dental Council of India has issued directions to this effect; private dental colleges had been pressing for such a move to fill their 503 vacant seats

FARIDKOT : To fill 503 vacant BDS seats in private dental colleges of Punjab, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) on Friday lowered the cut-off percentile for admission, following directions from the Dental Council of India (DCI).

The medical varsity has lowered qualifying percentile for general category candidates from 50 to 40. This means a general category student will now need a minimum of 113 marks out of 720, instead of 147, at NEET2020.

For SC/ST/OBC candidates and Persons with Disability (PWD), this qualifying percentile has been lowered from 40 to 30 and 45 to 35, respectively. Now, SC/ST/OBC candidates cutoff score has been reduced to 87 from 113, while cut-off score for PWD candidates has been lowered to 99 from 129.

Even BFUHS is unhappy at the decision. Dr Raj Bahadur, vice-chancellor, BFUHS said that the university has lowered the cut-off percentile for BDS courses on the directions of the DCI, but this will adversely impact quality of doctors.

“The cut-off percentile should not be below 50 as below average students cannot become proficient doctors. Private colleges need to understand that instead of filling seats, they should focus on quality of the dentists. We do not need a large number of dentists and private colleges should accept this reality,” he added.

“With the decrease in qualifying marks for dental courses the quality of dentists will go down,” said former BFUHS V-C, Dr SS Gill.

He added,“private institutions have always mounted pressure on the dental body to lower the percentile, so they can fill their large number of seats. They are only thinking about their losses and not on the quality of the health system.”

Sixth round of counselling on Feb 17

Even after the conclusion of counselling on January 30, the BFUHS will hold a sixth round of counselling (second extended stray vacancy round) on February 17, as the DCI has extended the admission schedule.

The university has invited fresh applications for BDS courses till February 15. The physical walk-in round will be held at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot.

The DCI had proposed to the Centre that the percentile for admission to BDS course in dental colleges should be lowered for each category, but the government declined the suggestion.

Private dental colleges, however, approached the Supreme Court arguing that the cut-off percentile was lowered last year also.

The apex court, then directed the DCI to lower the percentile by 10 for each category for this session.

Cut-off percentile should not be below 50. Instead of filling seats, private colleges must focus on quality of students. DR RAJ BAHADUR, Vice-chancellor, BFUHS

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir recorded 91 fresh coronavirus infections and one death on Friday, pushing the total cases to 1, 25,208 and death toll to 1,948.

Thirty five positive cases were reported from Jammu division and 56 from Kashmir division. With the discharge of 84 more patients, three from Jammu division and 81 from Kashmir division, 634 active cases remain in the UT. So far, 1,22,626 people have recovered in J&K.

As many as 1,225 people have succumbed to the disease in Kashmir and 723 in Jammu.

One more life lost in HP

DHARAMSHALA: Himachal Pradesh on Friday recorded 30 fresh coronavirus case, taking the state’s tally to 58,142 while death toll rose to 978 after one more patient succumbed to the contagion.

Recoveries in the state have reached 56,647 after 17 more people recovered on Tuesday. Now, there are 505 active cases.