Doctors demand lowering of NEET-PG cut-off

Federation of All India Medical Association has sent a letter to NMC regarding the revision of cut-off criteria for NEET PG 2021.

Following the announcement of the NEET PG counselling cut-off, a section of doctors are demanding to lower the cut-off to enable maximum students to participate in the examination. Allowing more students will ensure a significant number of MBBS students enrol for postgraduate programs.

The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) Doctors Association has sent a letter to the Secretary, National Medical Commission (NMC) regarding the revision of cut-off criteria for NEET PG 2021.
The current cutoff marks for NEET PG 2021 for the unreserved category (UR) are 302, for the reserved categories (SC/ST, OBC) are 285 and for the reserved categories of people with disabilities the cut-off marks are 283.

The letter states: “After the unprecedented delay in the NEET-PG 2021 counselling process, almost an entire academic year has been wasted, and now a high cutoff score means that medical students who fall to meet the cutoff criteria, will not be able to enter medical colleges. thereby causing these seats to go vacant and wasting one more precious year of their lives for the preparation of the next NEET-PG exam.

The association has stated that as a result of high cut-off scores, aspiring medical students will not only be prevented from entering post-graduation but will also be compelled to travel overseas to pursue their dream field of post-graduation, further depleting the medical manpower pool in India.

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“We cannot afford to lose these precious gems in such a time when the country needs a full-blown medical army to protect citizens from upcoming variants of COVID or any other epidemic that may occur,” it reads.

It states that country has already lost the life of one aspiring Indian doctor in Russia-Ukraine War and the lives of many are still at the stake. It reads: “The time has come for the administration to recognize them for their selfless service by reducing the cutoff marks for NEET-PG 2021. This will ensure that a significant number of MBBS students can enrol for postgraduate programs in various medical colleges across the country and not a single postgraduate seat goes vacant.”

The doctors have urged the concerned authorities to look into this matter as early as possible and take immediate steps to resolve it and help the country acquire more specialist doctors.

“By refusing to reduce cutoff scores, the administration will not only win the careers of thousands of hardworking doctors wishing to serve the nation but will also negatively Impact the medical fraternity by leaving many seats vacant in postgraduate courses. This can result in a serious deficiency of specialist doctors in India,” reads the letter.

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