To fill up the vacant seats in NEET PG, the authorities have lowered the qualifying cut-offs. In the latest revision of NEET PG cut-off marks, candidates with negative scores in some categories have been allotted seats in medical colleges. The move has triggered debate within the medical community, raising questions on the seat distribution, affordability, quality of training, and the long-term impact on healthcare.

However, medical associations and experts said that the vacancies are not due to a lack of applicants, but rather to structural issues within postgraduate medical education.

This is not the first time that percentile relaxations have been used to address the vacancies issue. In 2023, zero percentile was implemented for all categories, in 2024, it was brought to the 5th percentile for all, and for 2025, that is the current NEET PG cycle, graded revisions have been made as follows:

General / EWS: from 276 to 103/800

General PwBD: from 255 to 90/800

SC/ST/OBC: from 235 to -40/800

FORDA has also registered concern over the reduction in the NEET PG lowering scores and urged for the health miniter’s intervention.

FORDA (Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association) strongly condemns the arbitrary reduction of NEET PG cut-off scores; urges Union Health Minister JP Nadda for immediate intervention. pic.twitter.com/sanh0alFAN

— ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2026

According to doctors’ bodies, more than half of the vacant PG seats are in private medical colleges, where fees for MD and MS courses can range from Rs 25 lakh to over Rs 1 crore, and even higher for DNB and super-specialty programmes.

India currently has over 67,000 PG medical seats (MD, MS and diploma combined). Since 2014, the government says it has added over 20,000 PG seats, a significant expansion aimed at addressing specialist shortages.

Despite this, around 18,000 PG seats were reported vacant nationwide, according to counselling authorities.

A majority of these vacant seats are in private medical colleges and in non-clinical or less preferred specialties.

Netizens have also responded to the status of doctors’ performance and the future of medical health system in India. One user wrote while sharing the concern wrote “the collapse has already begun”.

Exam- NEET PG
Cur off – Minus 40 marks
Result – Selected

This is the new criteria for SC/ST/OBCs.

Someone who just sits for the exam will become doctor and do surgeries.

This country has no future for hardworking people.

The collapse has already begun ! pic.twitter.com/dVFa78k3FJ

— Anuradha Tiwari (@talk2anuradha) January 14, 2026

One medic wrote on X that their remained no difference who work hard and those who sleep in the exam.

I don’t know how to react on this , but now candidates scoring “Minus – 40”marks are also applicable to get NEET PG seat .

In simple language if you have money or specific category then even if you slept in the exam and scored negative marks = someone who topped /worked hard. pic.twitter.com/6O9r1o0NIJ

— Dr.Dhruv Chauhan (@DrDhruvchauhan) January 13, 2026