Private college students preferred for PG medical admissions

The head of Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has written a letter to the state government expressing his concerns over the Government Resolution (GR) that allows bonded candidates to appear for Post Graduate (PG) courses.

Maharashtra government’s rule to disqualify postgraduate medical aspirants who have not completed the one-year rural service is biased towards non-domiciles and students from private and deemed medical colleges, who don’t have to comply to a rural stint.

“The medical students who want to pursue PG and super-speciality courses comply with the rural service for all the courses combined after finishing their academics. But with the new GR in place, the students can no longer do so,” said an official.

The official said that the government is indirectly favouring only the graduates from private and deemed colleges to get admissions to PG medical course, which is not available for government college graduates, who do not sign a bond for rural service.

DMER officials are against the norms, since out of 1,400 seats, 700 are filled by Central government who would bypass these norms since the rule is only applicable for students of Maharashtra and not for students from other states.

Dr Pravin Shingare, Director DMER, said that if the GR stays as is, they will let the students appear for National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) but during admissions, will check if they have completed the bond.

“We can’t stop students from appearing for the nationally accredited exam but if the situation doesn’t change we will have to check the documentation while admissions. If they haven’t served the bond, they will not get admission for PG courses,” Dr Shingare said.

According to the new guidelines of the state government is to debar the MBBS students who have not followed rural bond sting from pursuing PG course which will apparently only affect 700 students who on merit list able to get admission in government medical colleges. “Out of 3100 total seats, 1700 seats are reserved for deemed and private medical colleges who do not need to do the ritual stint,” added Dr Shingare.

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has never opposed the Mandatory Bond Service for all MBBS Students of Government Medical Colleges as it is meant for strengthening the State medical system and increasing the availability of services specially in remote areas.

But this should not be time bound as for current students are being compelled to suffer as far as academics is concerned, when same can be smoothly performed even at a later stage.

“The recent steps in the implementation of this rule by the State Government is an unwelcome move. As any new resolutions should be applied prospectively from upcoming admission batches and the students undertaking such courses should be informed beforehand so that they can make a better-informed decision either to take the course or go with other options,” said Dr Rajesh Katre Representative Central MARD Maharashtra.