Dr. Kartikeya Garg completed his MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), Delhi — one of the most competitive medical colleges in the country. His father, Dr. Sandeep Garg, is a practicing physician in Meerut. The family knows what good medical education looks like from both sides.
NEET PG AIR 2,815. A rank that makes MD General Medicine at a strong government college genuinely realistic. The priority was clear: MD General Medicine at an old, reputed government college in north India. MD Paediatrics at a top institution as a close second. Private colleges — KMC Manipal, SRMS Bareilly, Himalayan Dehradun — were maintained as backups, never as targets.
DNB was an explicit non-choice from day one. The family wanted the MD route — government, institutional, unambiguous.
Delhi first — MAMC, LHMC, UCMS, VMMC, RML. Then KGMU Lucknow, GSVM Kanpur, MLN Allahabad, SNMC Agra, LLRM Meerut. Then colleges across MP and Rajasthan as the list extended. ESI Delhi, Railways PGI Delhi, RUHS Jaipur added as strong mid-tier options. The approach: fill only colleges you'd genuinely attend, in strict preference order, so any allotment is one you can commit to.
MCC AIQ Round 1 delivered LLRM Meerut in MD Paediatrics. LLRM — Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College — is an established government college in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. For the family, it had two things going for it: it's a real government allotment at a ranked college, and Meerut is home.
But it wasn't MD General Medicine. And the family had come into counselling with the explicit understanding that further rounds would be pursued for the best possible upgrade. The seat was reported, documents verified, upgradation flag marked as yes. The process continued.
In MCC PG counselling, filling choices for R2 only makes sense if every choice listed is better than your current allotment. If a worse college is allotted in R2, your R1 seat is automatically cancelled. The discipline: in each round, fill only colleges you'd prefer over what you currently hold. No filler entries. This rule was understood before R1 results even came, and it governed every subsequent choice list.
Before MCC R2, a college entered the picture that the family hadn't been tracking: Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana — DMC. Punjab state counselling, second round, two seats available in MD General Medicine.
Founded in 1934, DMCH is among the oldest and most respected private medical institutions in north India. The hospital serves as the primary referral centre for Punjab and the surrounding region — clinical exposure is substantial. The research output, faculty depth, and institutional reputation are genuinely comparable to top government medical colleges.
The family had not been tracking DMC. The Punjab counselling trail — which runs separately from MCC AIQ — was brought into the picture specifically because DMC was available in R2 and the family's rank made it a realistic target. It required a separate ₹2 lakh security deposit and a separate registration on the BFUHS portal.
The assessment was direct: DMC is top notch. Fees are one-third of standard private PG. After R2, vacancies at a college like this are extremely unlikely. If this opportunity is passed, it will not come back.
Punjab's BFUHS counselling twice put the family under extreme time pressure. Understanding why this happens — and how to navigate it — is one of the less-discussed aspects of NEET PG counselling.
Punjab state counselling results are announced independently of MCC AIQ timelines. In December 2025, Punjab declared R2 results on 26th December — three days after the family had joined Bharatpur under MCC AIQ R2. The MCC resignation window was extended (coincidentally) to 30th December, creating a narrow gap for the family to resign from Bharatpur and take DMC. Had that extension not happened, the family would have lost the DMC opportunity despite being allotted. The second Punjab wait — for resignation from DMC ahead of MLN reporting — resulted in the forfeiture of ₹2 lakh because Punjab did not open the resignation window in time with MCC's R3 schedule.
The ₹2 lakh loss was real and frustrating. But the calculus was never in question: MLN Medical College, Prayagraj — Motilal Nehru Medical College — is one of the oldest government medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh, established in 1961, with a long clinical tradition and strong MD programme in General Medicine. It is unambiguously the right destination. Punjab's administrative timing created friction, not a wrong outcome.
After being admitted at DMC Ludhiana, the family faced the most nuanced decision of the entire process. DMC is widely regarded as one of India's finest private medical colleges. The fees are low for a private institution. The clinical exposure is exceptional. Many senior physicians specifically recommend DMC over several government colleges.
The family had discussed this explicitly: "We have discussed with many people regarding DMC vs SNMC. People say DMC will be better. But as per our old thoughts and mindset, we have some love for SNMC."
The preference for a government college — MLN, SNMC, KGMU — was not irrational. Government MD General Medicine carries specific advantages: government hospital clinical volume, state service bond that translates to state quota in future PG and super-speciality counselling, and an institutional affiliation that has weight in certain career pathways. DMC is excellent. MLN is also excellent. The family had a clear preference and pursued it consistently, without being swayed by every intermediary opinion.
The key rule that made R3 possible: resignations from a Punjab state seat — even after joining — allow re-registration in MCC AIQ R3 with fresh security payment of ₹25,000. The family understood this before reporting to DMC, which is what allowed them to hold DMC as an insurance while waiting for R3 results, rather than having to choose blindly.
UP and Uttarakhand counselling were registered but deliberately not participated in. This was a conscious strategic call, not an oversight. Both states were open for private colleges only at this rank — and the family's energy was correctly concentrated on MCC AIQ and Punjab, where the real targets were.
Every extension, every court case delay, every re-extension of MCC dates was tracked and conveyed. When the zero-percentile writ petition in January briefly threatened to hold the counselling, the response was direct: nothing will change in it, barring a delayed process. When seat matrix PDFs from unofficial sources circulated before MCC's official release, the instruction was equally clear: no point in these, wait for MCC to publish.
Dr. Kartikeya's MBBS background from MAMC Delhi is not incidental. MAMC graduates enter PG counselling with a specific reference frame — they know what strong clinical training looks like, they have clear benchmarks for what a government medical college should provide, and they are less susceptible to being talked into private colleges simply because of brand names. The insistence on old, reputed government colleges was informed, not arbitrary. MLN Allahabad is exactly the kind of institution an MAMC graduate should be at for MD General Medicine.
"Thanks for all your support and margdarshan. You are just too good. Smart and Shant."— Dr. Sandeep Garg, 3 February 2026, on the day MLN Allahabad was confirmed
Two security deposits lost to Punjab's timing.
One destination — always the same.
NEET PG counselling rewards patience and a clear hierarchy. The question is never which seat to take — it's which one to leave behind.
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