More than 11,000 NEET UG aspirants were left clueless after the West Bengal Medical Counseling Committee in a sudden notice suspended the admission process for the MBBS and BDS courses "till further order."
The brief WBMCC notice read, "the WB NEET UG Medical Dental 2025 Counseling/Admission process has been kept in abeyance till further order. All concerned are hereby informed accordingly."
The announcement came just two days before the scheduled release of the round 1 of allotment of seats.
The announcement comes in the backdrop of all admissions to the general academic undergraduate schemes remaining suspended for the past couple of months. This, on account of the legal tangle over new reservation quota allotted to the other backward classes.
The case is presently pending before the Supreme Court and as a consequence the Calcutta High Court has paused the admission and recruitment processes across the State on account of that.
The State Government had earlier in the name of creating a new OBC quota reserved about 70 per centseats for the Muslims which the petitioners called a "backdoor entry for reservations on the grounds of reservation" violating the right to equality. The High Court too during its previous orders wondered as to how one community that constituted only 30 per centof the total population could get a reservation of 70 per centin the name of OBC quota before quashing the Government decision causing it to be taken to the Supreme Court final hearing.
Incidentally the State Government has withheld the publication of the results of the Joint Entrance Examinations for the undergraduate engineering courses too. Similarly the admissions to the UG schemes in general streams have also been withheld for the past several months with the effect that most of the students are preferring either to move to private universities or move out of the State.
Union junior education minister Dr Sukanta Majumdar condemned the order saying the situation had emerged due to an "undue privilege to a particular group under the guise of reservation." Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari who on Monday met Governor CV Ananda Bose "the admissions to the general streams have not started and the Joint Entrance Examination results haven't been declared either. This is a very serious issue affecting five lakh students and their parents this is all done for vote bank politics and help the private institutions to control the education system."
Meanwhile, the Left wing students unions on Monday staged protests outside the Education Ministry and courted arrest demanding early commencement of admission process.