Chennai: More than three decades after he first sought admission to medical college, 51-year-old Suresh Kumar, a diagnostics industry professional with an MBA and two doctorates, has secured an undergraduate medical seat at Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagapattinam with a score of 192 out of 720, under the persons with disabilities quota, on Thursday.Special category candidates were counselled offline at Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital in Chennai, while general category candidates registered online. Offline counselling opened with 15 seats in the sports category, 11 for children of ex-servicemen, 224 under the PWD category and 614 for students under the 7.5% quota. With 108 candidates, PWD had the least number of applicants. The competition was intense in the sports category, where 280 candidates competed for 15 seats. Under the ex-servicemen’s quota and the 7.5% govt school students’ quota, there were 366 and 3,806 students, respectively.Kumar passed Class XII in 1992, intending to pursue medicine but did not secure a seat. “I built a career in pharmacology, earning a postgraduate degree, an MBA, and two doctorals. I have been working in the diagnostics industry,” he told reporters. “In 2020, when the Supreme Court said there was no age barrier, I was happy. I wrote NEET in 2022 but didn’t make it. I prepared for nearly 1.5 years and made it this time,” he said.Kumar, who is from Velankanni in Nagapattinam district, said he plans to live with his 72-year-old mother and cycle for about 7km to college. His children, in Classes VIII and X, and his wife, Durga, a teacher, support his decision to join college. “I am happy he is pursuing his dream. Age is no criterion for education,” said Durga.Kumar said he intends to pursue a postgraduate medical degree after MBBS and has not decided between clinical practice and diagnostics. He advised other NEET aspirants to pursue an alternative course first and return to medicine later if the interest persists.Later, health minister K G Arunraj handed over admission cards to candidates who were allotted seats. “We had said 641 students from govt schools will be allotted seats under the 7.5% quota. But we have allotted seats only to 614 candidates. This is because one new medical college and additional seats in five medical colleges are yet to get affiliation from the state medical university. They already have NMC approval. These colleges will be included in the seat matrix in the second round of counselling,” Arunraj said.
