Reporter's diary: Officials’ tales of woe in allocating medical seats

CHENNAI: The counselling for medical courses in Tamil Nadu begins this week. The selection committee at the Directorate of Medical Education finds it difficult to select students as they have to ensure that all deserving students in the State get medical seats.

However, amid a craze for the medical profession, the task to deny the seats to those who cannot qualify is not easy for them either.

Many students, who qualify and get the seats after several rounds of counselling and submission of the fees, leave the course even before joining. One such incident was narrated to the reporter by an official recently who said that the parents of a student were ready to pay Rs 10 lakh penalty amount for discontinuing the course but wouldn’t take admission in the State.

Not to forget that there is a tuition fee of around Rs 25 lakh that was non-refundable.

As per the current regulations, MBBS and BDS students who have been allotted a course at the respective medical and dental colleges in the State will have to pay Rs 10 lakh penalty for discontinuing the course.

“We see so many students in tears because they don’t get admission but then we also see people who are happy to leave the seat after paying a huge sum of money because they would go for other courses or they get opportunities in other countries. There are two extremes that we have to deal with,” the official said.