Sixth round to fill 494 BDS seats draws blank

Faridkot, May 14

For the first time ever, not even a single student appeared before the counselling committee that had organised a walk-in session to fill 494 vacant BDS seats in 10 dental colleges here today. This counselling was held by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) here.

Why zero turnout

Instead of opting for BDS, most students want to have another go at MBBS by appearing in NEET-UG-2022, slated for July 17

Much to the surprise of the committee members, not even a single student appeared for the BDS course being offered to those with marks as low as 138 (general category) out of total 720 in NEET-UG-2021 test. For SC/ST and OBC categories, the cut-off is 108 marks. This was the sixth round of counselling to fill 494 vacant seats out of 1,000 in colleges across the state.

The reason for such a high number of seats going vacant is being attributed to the inordinate delay in conducting NEET-UG-2021 for MBBS and BDS courses due to the Covid pandemic.

Generally, the admission process for these courses is completed by September 30, but the process for NEET-UG-2021 had been delayed by over seven months.

So, instead of opting for the BDS course, most students want to have another go at the MBBS course by appearing in NEET-UG-2022, slated for July 17, said sources in the BFUHS. Even the admissions for MS/MD had been delayed by about 12 months with the process for NEET-PG-2021 being completed on May 6, 2022, instead of May 31, 2021.