Chennai: Counselling for MBBS and BDS courses, specifically for special categories, commenced on Thursday.

This session covers the 7.5 percent preferential government quota, persons with disabilities, ex-servicemen quota, and sports quota, providing opportunities for admission to medical and dental colleges across the state.

A total of 3,683 applications have been deemed eligible under the 7.5 percent preferential quota. This quota has allocated 496 medical seats, which include 319 MBBS seats in government medical colleges, 7 seats in ESI K K Nagar, 148 seats in self-financing medical colleges, and 22 seats in private universities.

Additionally, 126 dental seats have been reserved for government school students under the same quota. These include 16 seats in government dental colleges and 110 seats in self-financing dental colleges.

The counselling also caters to 133 applicants under the persons with disabilities category, 343 under the sports quota, and 455 under the ex-servicemen quota. For these special categories, a total of 223 MBBS/BDS seats are available for persons with disabilities, 11 seats under the ex-servicemen quota, and 8 seats under the sports quota.

According to the Directorate of Medical Education, the seat allotment process is scheduled to be completed by August 28, with the provisional results announced on August 29. The final results will follow on August 30. Successful candidates can download their provisional allotment orders until September 5, with the last date for joining set for the same day, at 5 PM.