State CET to hold 3rd round as 306 PG medical seats lie vacant

MUMBAI: The state common entrance test (CET) cell has now decided to conduct a third mop-up round for the postgraduate (PG) medical and dental candidates, as over 300 seats in government medical institutes remain vacant.

On Tuesday, state CET cell revealed that a total of 306 seats were still vacant in government medical institutes, while another 80 and 29 seats remained vacant in private medical and dental institutes respectively. The third mop-up round will be conducted to fill these seats, said a senior official from the state CET cell.

“Out of the 306 vacant seats, 260 seats had remained unallotted, as there were no takers for those seats in particular courses. The remaining 46 seats may have gone vacant as many students have already sought admissions elsewhere, so we are now combining all these seats in government medical institutes to conduct third mop-up round,” said Sandeep Kadam, commissioner, state CET cell.

A circular released late on Tuesday read that students who have confirmed their admissions in other institutes and are still part of the state common admission round will be allowed to withdraw their names so that they do not appear in the third mop-up seat allotment round.

Students who are allotted seats in the final mop-up round and fail to confirm admissions will be liable to pay a fine of up to ₹20 lakh and will be debarred from participating in the CET round under the state quota for the next two years, the circular read.

HT had earlier reported that the delay in conducting PG medical admissions forced many aspirants to opt for seats in other states.

While the third round of seat allotment brings hope to students, many are worried that the process will be of no help to aspirants from the open category unless the CET cell converts all vacant seats under various quotas into those under the general category.

“Over 250 seats that have not been allotted in the second mop-up round seem to be from various quotas. As no one is keen on opting for these seats, the CET cell should let students from the general category vie for these seats, as mentioned in the admission brochure,” said Muzaffar Khan, a Thane-based medical education counsellor.

While the list of vacant seats across state institutes has been made public on the CET website, the third mop-up round seat allotment list will be released on August 10. Students will have time till August 14 to physically visit the allotted college and confirm their admissions.

All seats that remain vacant after the third and final mop-up round will be displayed for eligible candidates to approach the institute directly and finish the admission procedure post-august 16, states the CET cell circular.