Medical varsity declares123 NRI quota MBBS seats vacant

Days after the Supreme Court shot down the state government’s decision to extend the 15 per cent NRI quota for MBBS admissions to the “wards” of NRIs, the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) on Wednesday evening declared 123 out of total 178 NRI quota MBBS seats in 10 medical institutes as vacant for the third round of counselling.

On August 20, the state government had relaxed the eligibility criteria for the NRI quota MBBS seats, allowing the relatives of NRIs to get admission. The SC had set aside the state government decision of relaxing the eligibility criteria.

There was a sudden increase in the number of candidates for the NRI quota MBBS seats after the government relaxed the eligibility criteria. However, after the SC order, the BFUHS had declined admission to the relatives of the NRIs. The university is the nodal agency to facilitate admissions to medical and dental colleges in Punjab.

As per the latest information, the BFUHS announced 263 MBBS seats, including 123 NRI quota seats, as vacant for the third round of counselling. Only two medical institutes (Government Medical College, Patiala, and the DMC, Ludhiana) have been able to fill all their 28 NRI quota MBBS seats.

The fee for an MBBS seat is $1.1 lakh at government and private medical colleges. Fifteen per cent of the total seats have been earmarked for NRIs in all private and government institutes of the state. Majority of these vacant NRI quota seats are converted into open category seats. While the private colleges will fill these seats under management quota, the government colleges fill these seats under open category.