UG Admission to AYUSH Courses to be Through NEET Only

KOLKATA: In a bid to streamline the admission process and bring meritorious students to the AYUSH systems of medicine in the country, the Centre has written to all the state governments urging them to admit students in the undergraduate AYUSH courses through the merit list of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The Union AYUSH ministry took the decision to bring AYUSH courses under the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) after considering the proposals submitted by various states. In December 2016, the Union ministry had sent a communiqué to all the state AYUSH departments seeking an opinion about bringing AYUSH under NEET which is a single level medical entrance examination introduced in the country formally from the previous year.
Students applying for undergraduate courses in Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) will now have to take the single entrance examination NEET for admission from this academic year as the ministry of Ayush decided to implement NEET for alternative medical systems at the undergraduate level from the academic session 2018-19. It may be mentioned here that the ministry started admitting students through NEET in postgraduate courses from the last year.
There will be no NRI or management quota in Ayush courses anymore and all the seats will be filled up by the state governments considering only NEET rankings. In its letters to all the state governments, Ministry of AYUSH has stated that from academic year 2018-19 all undergraduate seats of AYUSH degrees namely, BAMS, BHMS, BUMS, BSMS and BNYA shall be filled considering the merit list of NEET only.
The letter issued by Banamali Naik, undersecretary to the government of India, Ministry of AYUSH requested the state governments to ensure compliance of the decision of the Ministry and admit students in various AYUSH courses through the merit list of NEET from 2018-19 academic year. The ministry will talk to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on how to conduct the examination if Ayush is incorporated to the NEET. It was also learnt that the ministry of AYUSH wants CBSE to conduct the examination as it does in case of MBBS/BDS entrance. There are certain regulatory issues that need to be sorted out before implementing the new method, sources said. One of the main purposes of the move is to bring all the entrance examinations under one umbrella so that successful candidates will be able to opt for MBBS, BDS or AYUSH courses on the basis of their ranks in the examination. According to the AYUSH ministry, the new intuitive will streamline the admission process and also bring more meritorious students to AYUSH studies.
Source: http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/now-ug-admission-to-ayush-courses-through-neet-only-282194