Bhubaneswar: After medical counselling for NEET PG seats got over, 52 out of 615 PG seats are lying vacant in different medical colleges of the state because there are fewer candidates for non-clinical subjects compared to clinical subjects.Dr Jyotish Chandra Choudhury, head of the FMT department, SCB Medical College and Hospital, who looks after the counselling part of NEET PG seats in Odisha, said around 52 medical PG seats are lying vacant in both govt and private medical colleges. “After the counselling is over, we have submitted the vacancy data to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC),” he added.According to a Rajya Sabha reply from the ministry of health and family welfare on March 17, as many as 1,140 PG medical seats are lying vacant across medical colleges in the country after the counselling got over. The ministry said the qualifying percentile was reduced to ensure that valuable PG medical seats do not remain vacant. But the seats did not fill up this year too.Though the reply did not have a reason for this vacancy, experts said candidates mostly choose clinical subjects, including radiology, dermatology, general medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, and general surgery.Many of the candidates who receive good ranks in NEET PG do not prefer non-clinical subjects like anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and pathology. “Many candidates want clinical subjects so that they can contribute in a big way to the treatment of patients. They can also get the opportunity to earn a good amount of money in these clinical subjects,” said a doctor from SCB Medical College and Hospital.MCC under the Directorate General of Health Services handles counselling for 50 % of All India Quota seats and 100% of seats in Central and Deemed Universities. State govts conduct counselling for state quota seats, while state counselling authorities also handle private medical college admissions.
