Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 28: The aspirants of the course of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) in Jammu and Kashmir are feeling cheated as J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE), which is the regulatory authority for conducting the counselling for the NEET MBBS/BDS admission, kept 4 BDS seats under State quota vacant in Indira Gandhi Government Dental College (IGGDC), Jammu.
Sources in IGGDC Jammu told Excelsior that for MBBS/BDS admissions 2022, NEET examination was conducted last year on July 17 by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the result of the exam was declared on 7th September 2022, following which J&K BOPEE in the month of October conducted counseling for the students falling in the merit, for admissions in various Government and private Dental Colleges of the Union Territory.
“Accordingly, students were allotted to Government/private dental colleges under State/Central quota,” sources said, adding, while the IGGDC Jammu has 54 BDS seats under State quota and 9 under Central quota, 4 seats were left vacant in State quota and one seat in Central quota and no honest effort was made by the BOPEE to fill these seats, there by doing discrimination with students who were allotted a private Dental College, where they are paying annual fees in lakhs as compared to few thousands in Government Dental College, Jammu.
On the condition of anonymity, a BDS student who was allotted a private Dental College in Jammu said that BOPEE has cheated him and other students like him by keeping 4 seats vacant in IGGDC Jammu under State quota despite the fact that the IGGDC authorities informed the BOPEE well in time that there is shortfall of 5 seats in their institution, 4 under State quota and one under Central quota.
He said the Union Government conducted two mop-up rounds to ensure that no seat remained vacant in any Government College but here in J&K, BOPEE did nothing to fill up the seats that fell vacant in IGGDC Jammu due to non-joining of some candidates. He said if BOPEE would have also conducted 2nd mop-up round, these 4 BDS seats would not have remained vacant.
When contacted, Principal IGGDC Jammu Dr Rakesh Krishan Gupta said that BOPEE had fixed last date to inform it of any shortfall of candidates as 15 December 2022 and they informed them well on time that 4 seats under State quota and one under Central quota have fallen vacant due to non-joining of candidates. He said when on 29th December Centre extended the date to fill vacant seats till January 15, they also sent a communiqué to the BOPEE with the hope that it will also do something to fill the vacant seats but it did nothing and seats remained vacant.
Meanwhile, sources in BOPEE said that they were well aware of vacant BDS posts in IGGDC Jammu but they didn’t conduct 2nd mop-up round as there was no candidate even in the waiting list. “The second mop-up round was possible only if Centre would have lowered down the percentile for admission but that didn’t happen,” they rued. However, as to why the 4 students belonging to poor families (initially allotted private Dental College by BOPEE) were not adjusted against the vacant seats in IGGDC Jammu and have been made to pay fees in lakhs, still remained a mystery.
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