With the first round of MBBS counselling allotments by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, scheduled for August 27 and admission reporting beginning August 30, concern has surfaced among medical aspirants and parents over a requirement seeking two immovable-property sureties worth Rs 20 lakh each — effectively Rs 40 lakh in property security — alongside a Rs 20-lakh service bond.The issue concerns students allotted seats at Government Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar, Faridkot and Mohali, who are expected to complete admission formalities within days of the allotment.Under the policy, candidates admitted to government medical/dental colleges must serve in state’s government health institutions after completing their course and internship — two years for State Quota candidates and one year for All-India Quota candidates — backed by a Rs 20-lakh bond executed on stamp paper. The bond requires two sureties, typically parents or guardians, each furnishing valuation of immovable property worth at least Rs 20 lakh, which cannot be sold or encumbered for up to 7.5 years, covering the course, internship and service period.Parents said the requirement could disproportionately affect EWS and lower-middle-income families, since a student may qualify for a government seat purely on NEET merit and EWS eligibility without the family owning two separate properties of the prescribed value.Responding to the concern, Dr Avinish Kumar, Director, Medical Education and Research, Punjab, said the state government was following the High Court’s orders in the matter, and that students had alternatives available other than property to furnish the required surety.While the Punjab and Haryana High Court, during the 2025-26 admission cycle, had restrained the state from insisting on the two property-based solvency sureties, subject to candidates furnishing the service bond and required undertaking in the prescribed format, many students and their parents rue that there is no such mention about the alternative other than property to furnish the required surety in the general instructions given by the BFUHS in the prospectus for the admissions.Parents and aspirants have urged the Punjab Government, BFUHS and the concerned medical colleges to issue an immediate clarification and ensure that no meritorious student is denied or prevented from joining an allotted government MBBS seat merely because the family cannot furnish Rs 40 lakh worth of property as security.“A government MBBS seat should be secured on merit — not on the basis of a family’s property-holding capacity,” parents said, seeking an immediate and student-friendly resolution before admissions begin.