866 MBBS seats taken on Day One

On the first day of Eamcet counseling for admission to medical colleges on Friday, 866 MBBS seats were taken.

Of the top 900 students called for counseling on day one, 874 registered at the four centres in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati.

 In Hyderabad, 422 candidates attended counseling at JNTU Kukatpally.

 Only 89 turned up at Andhra University in Visakhapatnam while the NTR Health University Vijaywada and Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati registered 243 and 120 candidates respectively.

 This year's Eamcet medicine topper Vijay Ketan Reddy chose Gandhi Medical College (GMC) over Osmania Medical College (OMC).  “The infrastructure and atmosphere is better at Gandhi," he explained.

 However seats in Osmania were the first to fill up with the last seat being allotted to rank 245.

 Admissions to GMC closed at rank 372 and for Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal stopped at rank 375.

 Day One of counselling witnessed a Telangana-related protest as students from the Osmania University region expressed discontent at Medical Council of India's decision to delay the allotment of extra seats to OMC.

 “There should be 100 more seats in colleges in Telangana for students who hail from here.  Granting additional seats for government colleges ensures that deserving students stand a chance unlike private colleges,” said Priyanka Chowdhari who, with a rank of 617, chose the Government Medical College, Anantapur over private medical colleges in Hyderabad.

 “It is possible to get into OMC by the process of sliding if the government allots the 50 additional seats,” added Dr Venkateswaralu who accompanied his daughter to the counseling.

 By the end of the counseling session late in the evening, nearly all the MBBS seats in government medical colleges were taken.

 “I applied for Siddhartha Medical College in Vijaywada under the 15 per cent non-local quota and the intake closed with my rank,” said T Anusha from Hyderabad who had secured 604 rank in Eamcet.

 In Hyderabad, seats for the recently established medical college started by Apollo Health Agency were filled by the conclusion of the afternoon session as the location of the college was a priority for most candidates.

 At the Andhra University campus, Visakhapatnam, rector P V G D Prasad Reddy handed over the allotment letters to V Sandesh (rank 11) and V. Rashmitha (rank 55) who were admitted at the centre.

 The second day of counseling for ranks 901-2400 will commence at 9 am Saturday.

 A total of 3880 MBBS seats and 1071 BDS seats are available in the counselling.