NEET PG 2025 Counselling: 1140 Seats Still Vacant After Stray Round; Centre Rules Out Scrapping Exam
A total of 1,140 seats remained vacant after NEET PG 2025 stray round of counselling as per information shared by Union Government to Rajya Sabha. Despite state-level opposition, Centre confirmed there is no plan to scrap NEET exam for medical courses admission.
NEET PG Exam: Union Government of India has informed Rajya Sabha that 1,140 postgraduate (PG) medical seats are still remained vacant after conclusion of NEET PG 2025 stray vacancy round counselling. Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel, shared that these vacant seats exists even after reducing NEET PG 2026 qualifying cutoff to 'negative'
NEET PG Counselling 2025: Seat Vacancy Details
According to data submitted on March 17, 2026, 1,140 vacant PG medical seats have been reported in government and private medical colleges across India. board has increased seat availability and approved 8,416 new postgraduate seats to facilitate students. Despite increasing PG medical seats to 58,331, more than 1000 seats are still vacant. As per experts, students lack interest in non-clinical branches like Physiology and Anatomy. Another reason is high tuition fees in private institutions.
No Proposal to Scrap NEET
Commonly asked questions
Yes. Candidates will have to declare preferences of choices for each round of NEET PG counselling after registration. It must be noted registration and choices can be declared online. At the same time, choices must be locked in the given deadline otherwise it gets locked automatically. Based on declared choices, seat availablity, NEET PG rank, seats will be allotted.
No. Candidates need the minimum cut off to qualify for NEET PG. It must be noted only those who qualify the exam with the minimum cut off score will be eligible to participate in the counselling rounds for seat allotment. Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) conducts online counselling for seat allotment. Candidates have to register and declare choice for college and course for seat allotment.
State agencies conduct counselling for 50% quota seats. Rest 50% seats are allotted through All India Quota which is conducted by Medical counselling Committee (MCC). Candidates do have to fill application form to become elligible for state counselling process. State counselling bodies release counselling dates and schedule for seat allotment.
Union Government, while talking about future of examination, said that there is currently no proposal to discontinue NEET for medical education. This statement comes after resolutions passed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal for discontinuing NEET. These states want scrapping national-level test and want state-conducted entrance exams for medical education. government said that NEET is mandatory under Section 14 of National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, for equal, merit-based admission process.
Follow Shiksha.com for latest education news in detail on Exam Results, Dates, Admit Cards, & Schedules, Colleges & Universities news related to Admissions & Courses, Board exams, Scholarships, Careers, Education Events, New education policies & Regulations.
To get in touch with Shiksha news team, please write to us at news@shiksha.com
Mayank Uniyal is an MCom graduate in International Business. He has over 7 years of experience in content writing. He has been working in the education domain since the beginning of his career. He covers news and up
Read Full Bio