With back-to-back dates for counselling for Masters in Dental Surgery (MDS) courses in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, aspirants for the seats in the north are upset as they are left with little choice. The MDS counselling will be held between April 4 and April 9 in the three states.

The counselling is being held on the basis of the result of the National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET) that was held on 7 January and the result was declared in the last week of January. Those who have cleared the examination have been left with little choice but to deposit the huge amount of fee in whichever college they get the seat first.

The managements of private dental colleges have played their cards cleverly by fixing the MDS counselling dates in such a manner that the aspirant does not have too much of choice.

Though the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is conducting counselling for a total of 972 seats, only about 230 MDS seats are available in various government dental colleges of the country, which are in the central pool, and to be filled through All India Quota (AIQ). The remaining seats are in private deemed universities and central universities. More than 18,000 candidates are eligible for the counselling.

The counselling for MDS seats of Haryana will be held in Rohtak on 4 April while that of Punjab is on 5 April at Faridkot. The counselling for Himachal Pradesh seats will take place in Shimla has been rescheduled for 9 April. Candidates blame the state governments for asking the aspirants to be physically present at the MDS counselling instead of doing the exercise online.

The situation in J&K is worst where only 12 MDS seats are available for hundreds of aspirants. Candidates of J&K who have done their BDS from the state are not eligible for admission to government dental colleges outside the state as J&K does not contribute any seat to the central quota.

The union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, vide Notification No V.12012/1/2018-DE dated 22nd March 2018, has lowered the minimum qualifying percentile for MDS Course from 50th to 20.265th percentile for general category, 40th to 10.265th percentile for SC/ST/OBC and from 45th to 15.265th percentile for persons with disability. Many state governments have to change their MDS counselling schedule after this notification. Earlier, the counselling for MDS seats in Himachal Pradesh was on 3 April, which has now been rescheduled to 9 April. Aspirants throughout the country who have filled the counselling form for Himachal are unhappy as they have to reschedule their travelling dates and hotel bookings.

Senior educationists blame that lowering merit to such an extent will degrade the dental profession and allege that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has issued this notification only under the pressure of private dental colleges as many MDS seats remained vacant in year 2017.

Several aspirants complained that they had to register separately with agencies authorised by each state government for counselling to secure a seat in any dental college for which the registration fee ranges from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per state. Candidates have to go through the websites of all state authorities every day for any update regarding the counselling schedule, fees or any notification.