Twenty-six more medical and dental seats are vacant in Punjab’s medical colleges, taking the total from 808 to 834, after many students from the state’s colleges shifted to All India Quota (AIQ) seats in medical colleges in other states.As per the seat matrix for the third round of counselling, released by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, on Wednesday, 322 MBBS seats and 512 Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) seats lie vacant.The NRI quota accounts for the bulk of the vacancies, with 175 MBBS and 214 BDS seats, or 389 in all, accounting for nearly 47 per cent of the total.Scheduled Caste seats account for 119 vacancies in BDS but only 14 in MBBS. The Open category has 30 vacant MBBS seats and 12 BDS seats, while 59 MBBS seats and 70 BDS seats remain vacant in the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category.Among medical colleges, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, has the highest number of vacancies at 53, of which 38 are in the NRI quota. Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda, follows with 47 vacancies, followed by Sri Guru Ram Das Institute, Amritsar, with 43. Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, has 35 vacancies, Gian Sagar Medical College, Banur, 32, and RIMT Medical College, Mandi Gobindgarh, 30.Government Medical College, Patiala, has 24 vacant seats, Government Medical College, Amritsar, 22, Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana, 15, and Dr BR Ambedkar State Institute, Mohali, 12. Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, has nine vacancies, while ESIC Medical College, Ludhiana, has none.Among dental colleges, RIMT Dental College and Sri Sukhmani Dental College, Dera Bassi, lead with 46 vacant seats each. Desh Bhagat Dental College, Mandi Gobindgarh, has 43 vacancies, while Guru Nanak Dev Dental College, Jattvibeam, and Genesis Institute, Ferozepur, have 42 each. National Dental College, Dera Bassi, has 39 vacancies.Gian Sagar Dental College, Banur, has 37 vacant seats, Adesh Institute of Dental Sciences, Bathinda, 34, Luxmi Bai Institute, Patiala, 33, and Rayat-Bahra Dental College, Mohali, 31. Dasmesh Institute, Faridkot, has 26 vacancies, while Baba Jaswant Singh Dental College, Ludhiana, and SGRD Institute, Amritsar, have 22 each. Christian Dental College, Ludhiana, has 17 vacancies, and Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha Dental College has 11. Among government dental colleges, Patiala has 10 vacant seats and Amritsar 11.In the Malwa belt, Faridkot has 79 vacant seats in all, including 53 in MBBS and 26 in BDS, while the two Adesh institutes in Bathinda together have 81 vacancies — 47 in MBBS and 34 in BDS.