NEET aspirants grateful to Chief Minister for increasing number of seats

Kolkata: Many medical aspirants from Bengal who are preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which is scheduled to take place in a couple of months time, have expressed their gratitude to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for increasing the number of seats in the state.

Banerjee has been instrumental in bringing a sea transformation in the health-education sector across the state. It was the Chief Minister who had taken up a series of initiatives so that state produces more doctors — addressing the crisis of medical officers in various state-run hospitals.

After coming to power, Banerjee felt the need of creating more opportunities for the aspiring students. To address the crises in this sector, she announced to build more medical colleges in different districts. Once they are set up, the number of MBBS seats will further go up.

According to sources in the state Health department, the combined number of MBBS and BDS seats has increased from 2,205 to 3,750, while the number of post-graduate medical seats has increased from 880 to 1,297. It may be mentioned here that the number of post-doctoral seats have also increased from 107 to 147.

Within the first half of 2019, five government-run medical colleges are expected to be thrown open in the state creating more job opportunities. As many as 500 more undergraduate medical seats will be added in these five medical colleges which are scheduled to come up at Diamond Harbour, Purulia, Rampurhat, Raigunj and Cooch Behar. As many as 93 tutor-demonstrators were appointed by the Health department, bringing the total number of such appointees to 2,095. The government seeks to ensure better healthcare infrastructure in the rural areas.

In the dental education section, steps have been taken to increase the number of seats in nursing courses. As a part of West Bengal Dental Education Service (WBDES), around 72 clinical tutors have been recruited till now.

Shreyoshi Dutta, a medical aspirant from the city who will appear for the forthcoming NEET, said: "We are thankful to the present government for increasing the number of medical seats. Now, more aspirants will be able to study MBBS."

Soumava Banerjee, a resident of Baranagar, is eager to appear for both medical and engineer entrance examinations. He believes more engineering and medical seats should be added as there is a large pool of talent waiting to render services.

There has been a great deal of improvement in the health-education sector.