Hyderabad: With Neet counselling for admission into medical and dental colleges set to begin in the state on Saturday, medical aspirants and their parents are complaining of receiving multiple text messages from agents guaranteeing them seats. Neet rules mandate admissions only through counselling. The agents send bulk messages under heads like AD-MKTING, HP-MKTING, AX-STUDNT, MD-DRYAD. Parents who are willing to pay for a medical seat for their ward more often than not end up being cheated. As recently as on Thursday, the Cyber Crime police of Hyderabad arrested two persons for collecting Rs 81 lakh in exchange for a MD Dermatology seat.
Despite warnings and alert notifications put out by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and state health universities, there have been many cases of fraud. The MCI has informed parents and students that their admissions will be cancelled if they get tempted by such offers and skip Neet counselling, which is mandatory to join medical and dental programmes. Dr B. Karunakar Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, said, “We have released statements and alerted students cautioning them against falling into such traps. Many parents whose children are unable to qualify for Neet are getting tempted to buy the seats offered by agents. They should know their admission will get cancelled by the MCI if they try to get admissions without Neet qualification and counselling.”
Dr Karunakar Reddy said since the introduction of Neet, counselling is mandatory. “Even for getting admission into the management quota, students have to go through Neet counselling. Earlier also MCI had identified such students and cancelled their admissions and now they are fighting court cases.” He said before the introduction of Neet, selling seats for crores of rupees was a big business. It has become difficult now. Previously they used to get a commission. After Neet as they cannot do business they are duping parents,” the Vice-Chancellor said.
“I often get complaints from parents about such messages which say, ‘Even if you have not qualified Neet you will get admission’. These parents asked me whether they should accept the offer but I explained that such admissions will not be valid,” he said. Dr Harika Valala, a Neet aspirant from Hyderabad, said, “I receive these bulk messages from agents on a daily basis. but I ignored the messages.”
Agents wilfully block medical seats
Agents sometimes ‘block’ seats in medical and dental colleges using students from other states in coalition with the managements of colleges. Health universities and the police should continuously monitor such activities, said the Hyderabad Reforms Doctors Associations (HRDA) Agents in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh send messages to students offering seats in medical colleges in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana state.
Dr K. Mahesh of the HRDA said, “Most agents are involved with the medical colleges in blocking seats. In the recent PG admissions, agents tried to block the seats even before the counselling. Because of this, many seats have gone empty and students are fighting for mop-up counselling.” Dr G. Srinivas, advisor to the Junior Doctors Association (JUDA), said, “Agents are cheating many aspirants every For management NRI quota seats, candidates who can afford it are approaching agents from various states. Many students have blocked seats with the help of agents and brokers.’’
