NEET exam: 10,000 more seats across 58 medical colleges up for grabs by 2017

From next year onwards, NEET candidates will be able to apply for 10000 more seats. According to Faggan Singh Kulaste, the union minister of state for health and family welfare, medical seats will go up by 10,000 in 2017 through NEET exam. Fifty-eight medical colleges across the country have been identified for the same, which will be upgraded within the next year.

The minister announced this while addressing the second healthcare summit-Rajasthan 2016 in Jaipur on Friday.

"The ministry is taking all steps to provide medical and health services to people. Efficient services are being made available to public with the use of IT," he said.

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On Thursday, the Supreme Court had cancelled counselling for medical admissions by private colleges in Madhya Pradesh. The bench had said that the counseling process is going to be centralized and should be conducted afresh, giving the state government one week to finish the counseling process for private as well as government medical colleges. The court also ruled that two representatives from private medical colleges would be present during the centralised counselling round.

The court's decision had been prompted due to a contempt petition filed by the Madhya Pradesh government. The petition had alleged that private medical colleges had been refusing to admit students even after they were eligible for admission based on their NEET score. The petition also said that the private medical colleges were adamant to go ahead with their own counseling procedure for the medical admissions.

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On Friday evening, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had given a statement that he welcomed the order of the Supreme Court regarding NEET admission and had stated that orders for medical counseling in Maharashtra and other states are expected soon.

- PTI