The Union Health Ministry on Monday deferred the NEET-PG counselling for admission to postgraduate medical courses, which was scheduled to begin from September 1, to allow the National Medical Commission to complete the process of adding new seats.

Though the ministry has not announced the revised schedule, official sources said the counselling is likely to begin in the third week of September.

"The NEET-PG Counselling, 2022 was scheduled to commence from September 1. However, National Medical Commission (NMC) is in the process of issuing new letter of permissions (LoPs) for the current academic year and the same will be concluded till September 15. Hence, in order to include more seats in the counselling for the benefit of the candidates, it has been decided by the competent authority to re-schedule the NEET-PG Counselling, 2022 which was scheduled to commence from September 1," the ministry said in a notice.

Also, regulatory inspections in some medical colleges are underway, sources said.

Usually, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate), NEET-PG, is held in January and the counselling starts in March. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the delay in last year's admission process, this year's exam was held on May 21 and results were declared on June 1, a senior official said.

This year's PG counselling is likely to be held for around 52,000 seats. Students who have qualified in the exam will be able to fill their choices with respect to courses and colleges during the counselling process for admission to the all India quota seats, state medical and dental colleges, central and deemed universities.

The PG counselling will commence for all central universities, deemed universities and 50 per cent of the all India quota and 50 per cent of the state quota of both medical as well as dental colleges simultaneously, officials said.