Medical aspirants left in the lurch as CBSE fails to provide state-specific rank cards

Around 40,000 medical aspirants from Bengal who have secured ranks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year and are seeking admission in various medical colleges under the state quota seats are staring at an uncertain future as the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) has not published any state specific rank cards.

Bengal's candidates whose names have featured on the nationwide merit list are not sure whether they will get an opportunity to study medical as it is not possible for them to assess if they will get admission on the basis of the merit list published by the CBSE that had conducted the examination recently.

The state Health department is yet to come up with a decision whether a state merit list will be published on the basis of the list published by the CBSE. Experts say it may take nearly a month for the state Health department to prepare the state-wise list as there was no mention of the category of candidates on the central list. It has also not been clearly stated if the state would admit candidates on the basis of the central merit list which may prove to an uphill task for the department.

As a result of this, counselling dates for admission of candidates in the state-run medical colleges could not be announced by the state Health department creating confusion among those candidates who have ranked in the central merit list. Around 85 percent seats in all the government-run medical colleges in the state are reserved for state quota candidates while the rest are for outside candidates.

Around 65,000 candidates who are domicile of West Bengal appeared in the NEET this year among which around 40,000 have secured ranks. But despite securing ranks, the candidates are not sure whether they are good enough to secure a medical seat in any of the state-run or private medical colleges in the state. It is because this is a new format of examination and candidates securing ranks of 50,000 or 60,000 are unaware if their ranks will fetch them a medical seat.

Many of these candidates are not sure whether to opt for B.Sc or other general courses as they are not confident about the medical admission. They were anxiously waiting for the announcement of the first counselling session by the state government after publishing a state-level rank list. The matter may get more complicated for the students if the process is further delayed. Every year, the counselling process begins by this time already and MBBS classes begin in August.