Money-over-marks ploys on in ongoing medical admission in Maharashtra – Times of India

MUMBAI: The ongoing medical admission process in the state is again riddled with errors, some inexplicable, others blood-boiling, and causing immense hardship to aspirants and their families.
Take the example of Rupa (name changed). An OBC candidate with 605 in her undergraduate NEET, she is on the selection list of multiple private medical schools across Maharashtra in the institute-level vacancy round for the MBBS programme. It is mysterious why Rupa would not pick a seat in a government college, where fees are a lot less, though admission closed at a much lower score (556).
Persons familiar with the admission system described several ways in which private colleges are manipulating the system. “Many of these selection lists are filled with candidates who have not even applied to these colleges. These lists are put up by college managements to block their seats from being allocated at lesser fees,” explained Sachin Bangad, a counsellor. These seats have been pre-booked by candidates with low scores but high paying power.
Medical education minister Girish Mahajan assured that his secretary and the CET commissioner would immediately take a look at the issues and aspirants would get justice.
“This year, the CET Cell conducted two additional online stray vacancy rounds. While the intent was noble, it is sad over 50% students were turned away by the colleges,” said parent representative Sudha Shenoy. An aspirant was asked to leave as the domicile certificate did not mention “Zilla: Nashik” though the Nashik tehsildar’s stamp and signature mentioned it. In another case, one candidate was turned away as his father’s name had been spelled with an ‘ee’ instead of an ‘i’.
Nikhil Jadhav (score 498) from Kaij in Beed has moved the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court on being fobbed off by a private college. After the online stray vacancy round 4, he was allotted SSPM Medical College, Sindhudurg. He gave up his seat in Apollo, Hyderabad, and reached the college on December 17. He and his parents were taken in at 10am, given a form and made to wait in a hall with 20-odd other candidates. Five hours later, Jadhav was asked for cheques for all four years’ fees.
“We had got only one cheque. But we had one more day, so we called our village, asked our friends to break into our house and the cupboard, get the cheque book out and travel to the college in another taxi. On December 18, we went with all the documents and the cheques and after spending the whole day in the hall, were asked to leave at 5pm,” said his father Purshottam, a cotton and soyabean farmer. At 5.30pm, he got a message: “Admission denied as candidate did not report.”
Nikhil is now out of the admission process as norms mandate for non-reporting. He had two options: start from scratch in 2023 or move court. His family has filed a complaint with the state CET Cell too.
“Many candidates who reached colleges were either turned away for frivolous reasons or no reason at all in some cases. On the final day at the nth hour, the colleges will show an admission list with candidates who have 200-or such scores but have paid up and will say the other candidates did not turn up,” said counsellor Bangad.