India, Oct. 30 -- For the first time in recent years, medical admissions in Maharashtra have ended with a significant number of seats in MBBS and BDS courses lying vacant - 138 in all. Admission data reveals 84 MBBS and 54 BDS vacant seats, almost all of them in private medical colleges and universities.

Sources in medical colleges say tighter scrutiny of the admission process has resulted in vacant seats. Significantly, the state government abolished the institutional round for undergraduate medical and dental admissions in private colleges for the upcoming academic year. All seat allotments are now made by the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, effectively barring backdoor entry and other irregularities in these much sought-after u...