The counselling for MBBS admissions in Tamil Nadu will begin on Wednesday. This will be the first time when the 7.5% quota for government school students who have cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), will be implemented by the state government. Of the overall eligible applicants this year in Tamil Nadu, almost 60% have completed their class 12 board exams before the academic year 2019-20.

Tamil Nadu Minister for Health & Family Welfare, C Vijayabaskar released the rank list for medical admissions in the state on Monday. Announcing that the counselling will begin on Wednesday, the minister said that it will be held in Nehru Indoor stadium in Chennai and by following physical distancing protocols.

A total of 24,712 applications were received by the state government prior to the counselling of which 23,707 were found eligible. Of the 23707 eligible applications, 15885 are from the Tamil Nadu state board, 7366 are from CBSE, 285 students are from the ICSE board and 171 from other boards of education. Of these, 9,596 students have passed their class 12 in the current academic year and 14,111 are students who have completed their class 12 boards prior to the academic year 2019-20, according to a report.

The first session of counselling will be for students from special categories, followed by students from government schools. Tamil Nadu will have 313 MBBS seats and 92 BDS seats for students from government schools based on the 7.5% reservation provided to them. A total of 4,185 seats in MBBS and 1,913 in BDS are up for grabs for students in Tamil Nadu under the state quota, including the management quota seats.

A total of 500 students will be called for counselling in each session. The Health Minister said that the counselling process is being held in person so as to verify the nativity certificates properly and provide admissions only to genuine candidates.