THE Union Health Ministry on Saturday clarified that the counselling schedule for NEET UG and PG courses fortheyear 2024 has not yet been notified by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC). Thecounsellingschedulefor NEET UG and PG is announced byMCC,under theDirectorate General of Health Services, on its website on the basis of the completion of the exam process and the finalisation of the seatmatrixby theNational Medical Commission (NMC). In 2021, 2022 and 2023, the counselling for UG seats commenced on 19/1/2022, 11/10/2022 and 20/7/2023 respectively, the Ministry said in a statement. For the year 2024, NMC has communicateditsschedulefor finalisation of the seat matrix for UG and PG seats in the last week of June indicating that it willfinalise theUGseatmatrix by the third week of July and PG seatmatrix bymid-August.

 

The MCC will accordingly notify the counselling schedule. “Therefore, it is clarified that MCC has not yet notified the counselling schedule for the year 2024,” the ministry saidinthebackdropofreports claiming that the counselling for NEET-UG has been put off. Amid growing clamour for cancellation of the controversy-ridden National Eligibility cum Entrance TestUndergraduate (NEET-UG), 2024,overallegedmalpractice, the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) told the Supreme Court on Friday that scrapping it without any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality would be counterproductive as it could “seriouslyjeopardise” lakhsofhonest candidates.

 

The apex court last month refusedtodeferthecounselling process. It was hearing a petition seeking a direction to pausetheprocess fortwo days. The NTA, which conducts NEET-UG for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses, and the UnionEducationMinistryhave been at the centre of the row over alleged large-scale malpractice - ranging from question paper leaks to impersonation - in the test held on May 5.