A move that will benefit close to 10,000 medical aspirants, Union health ministry decided to bring down the cut offs for post graduate seats through National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Examination (NEET)- 2017.

Percentile cut offs for the exam will be reduced by 7.5 percentile.

NEET-2017 was conducted by National Board of Examinations (NBE) for admission to all post-graduate medical courses in the country. The qualifying criteria was marks at 50th percentile for general category, 40th percentile for OBC/SC/ST and 45% percentile for PWD category.

“… It has been decided in consultation with Medical Council of India (MCI), to reduce the percentile cut offs for NEET-PG 2017 by 7.5 percentile, taking them to 42.5 percentile for general candidates, 32.5 percentile for reserved category candidates and 37.5 percentile for PWD category,” read a statement from the health ministry.

However, this lowering of cutoffs is only a one-time move meant for academic session 2017, as a significant number of seats were being left vacant, with not adequate number of candidates having met the qualifying cut off score.

“As per Clause 9 sub-clause III of Medical Council of India’s Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER), 2000, when sufficient number of candidates fail to secure minimum marks, the Central Government in consultation with MCI, may lower the minimum marks which shall be applicable for the said academic year only. Representations were received from some State Governments that seats in some categories may remain vacant as there are not sufficient number of candidates available.”

Earlier, a decision was also taken to lower cut offs for the PG dental seats. On May 17, government and Dental Council of India had ordered lowering qualifying NEET score for admissions in PG dental by 7.5 percentile as there were not enough candidates meeting the requirement.

After the move, another merit list is expected soon.

[“source-hindustantimes”]