Appeal to lower NEET qualifying marks to fill up vacant seats

Kolkata: The Dental Council of India (DCI) has written to the Union Health ministry urging it to lower the qualifying marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2019 to fill up the vacant seats in various private and government dental colleges across the country.

In its letter, the DCI pointed out that around 44 per cent seats in government dental colleges have been lying vacant in the current academic session. In case of private dental colleges around 42 per cent seats are yet to be filled up.

In Bengal, there are 250 permitted seats of Bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) in state owned dental colleges and the number is 300 in case of private colleges.

Out of the total 550 seats, 103 seats have not been filled up in all the government colleges put together in Bengal. Around 4 seats have been lying vacant in private dental colleges.

The number of total vacant seats stands at 107 in the state so far. According to the DCI letter, around 147 seats have so far been filled up in government dental colleges and 296 in private colleges have been filled up.

If the vacant seats are not filled up, the government will not only incur losses but the scarcity of dental surgeons will be further intensified in the state. This comes at a time when the Bengal Chief Minister has been keeping no stone unturned to increase both MBBS and BDS seats in the state. The Bengal government is in the process of introducing many more new medical colleges in the state.

The joint secretary (L&A), DCI has written to the secretary of the Union health ministry spelling out the situation in the dental colleges across the country.

The letter contains a detailed description on how a large number of seats are yet to be filled up.

The letter also mentions how the seats in various dental colleges across the country are vacant.

The letter also points out that a total of 7,97,042 candidates have qualified NEET for admission in both MBBS and BDS courses out of which total 26,749 seats are permitted for the BDS for the academic session of 2019-20.

The Union health ministry has been requested to lower the qualifying marks in the NEET so that the vacant seats can be filled up not only in Bengal but in all the states.

It may be mentioned that the Centre has made it mandatory that both the MBBS and BDS seats would be filled up through NEET. Earlier, the MBBS students were selected through the NEET.