New Delhi: While aspiring medical students who just missed the NEET cut-offs for entrance to colleges may have been hopeful that they would be assigned the unfilled seats under the NRI quota, those seats now seem to have gone to others who scored much less in the entrance exam.According to the Times of India, students who did not do well in the exam have managed to bag these seats by submitting letters saying that an NRI will be sponsoring their education, and hence they qualify for the quota. If the NRI quota seats had not been filled, they would have been transferred to the management quota – for which the fees is less, often with a difference of Rs 25-35 lakh.Ever since the registration for counselling began, several students have applied to change their nationality, and move from Indian to NRI status. This continued even till the last leg of the admissions, the newspaper reported, and the National Medical Council allowed it to happen because of a 2017 Supreme Court judgment saying that a candidate can change their nationality at any time.The NRI quota seats have gone to students who have received much lower ranks than many who got no seat at all. “At Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences, Loni (Maharashtra), the last management seat was filled by rank 83,817 while the last NRI seat went to rank 8,72,911. At Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar, the last management seat was allotted to rank 86,416 and its last NRI seat to rank 8,76,357,” according to the Times of India.The NMC’s medical counselling category had said on January 10 that any seats under reservations for Muslims, Jains and NRIs that were not filled would be made open for students from unreserved categories. This decision was reiterated again in March. Students, however, seem to have found a way around this by turning to NRI sponsors instead and using the fine print in the process to their advantage.This is not the first time the allocation of medical seats under NEET has become controversial. Earlier too, reports have indicated students who are able to pay higher fees and get in through the NRI or management quotas often scored badly on the entrance, and yet took up seats that could have gone to students from marginalised or less well-off sections of society.
