100 new seats in government medical, dental colleges in Mumbai yet to be filled

Despite receiving permission from the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Medical Council of India (MCI) last month to introduce 100 new seats for undergraduates in state-run medical and dental institutes, the state has not alloted a single one of the new seats this year.

After several protests, parents have now started an online petition to convince the state to include the seats in the 2019-20 academic year.

On August 27, the BoG had announced the introduction of 50 seats each in government medical colleges (GMC) in Latur and Kolhapur. On September 4, the state common entrance test (CET) cell released the mop-up round list. The newly-approved seats had not figured into the list.

“Not only did these 100 seats go vacant, but another 62 seats went vacant in government dental colleges owing to errors by the state CET cell,” said Muzaffar Khan, a Thane-based medical education counsellor.

The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) had also written to the state medical education ministry, asking them to approach the Supreme Court (SC) for clarity on the matter. Anand Rayate, commissioner, CET cell, said that with no intimation on the new seats, the CET cell had no power to include them in the mop-up rounds.