Communication gap creates chaos, status of 700 medical seats unclear
Medical Council of India and state medical education minister
give out conflicting reports; AICTE keeps seat matrix for engineering counseling
pending.
Lack of communication between the state government and the Medical Council of India
(MCI) is creating confusion over the fate of the 700 odd additional medical seats
that are eagerly awaited.
While state Medical Education Minister S. A. Ramdas proudly announced that the state
has finally succeeded in fetching MCI approvals for the 700 under-graduate medical
seats on Thursday 30th June, the medical council sources denied such a development
later in the day.
Since the MCI approval for the medical seats was still pending even after the completion
of the first round of counseling for admission to under-graduate medical and dental
courses, Ramdas flew to New Delhi on Tuesday for the second time to hold talks with
MCI officials on the issue.
On Thursday 30th June, Ramdas claimed that his second visit emerged fruitful and,
after the intervention of Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad, the MCI has agreed
to approve the seats.
The minister also said that the state government has given the MCI an undertaking
that all necessary infrastructure would be in place in state government medical
colleges within two months.
Ramdas said: "I spoke to both MCI officials and the Union health minister and they
have agreed to approve the seats. We will receive an official order on this by Friday
evening. We also gave an undertaking on providing necessary infrastructure, which
was insisted upon by MCI, within 60 days," he said. He added that a special round
of counseling would be conducted for these 700 additional seats.
But MCI sources gave out conflicting reports. After a meeting of council officials
on Thursday evening, a source said that only 50 additional seats have been approved
for Karnataka out of the 700. "The number of medical seats has been enhanced by
50 for the Mysore Medical College and not for any other college. A few private medical
colleges had sought seat enhancement, but the MCI has denied approval," a source
said, about 10 hours after Ramdas called media persons and announced 700 additional
seats for the state.
Deemed Universities
Ramdas is planning to hold a meeting with representative of deemed universities
once again and said that their seats would be cleared by July 5. "I had a first
round of meeting with deemed universities, but some of them failed to turn up. So,
I am planning to meet them all again," Ramdas said.
Engineering Counseling in limbo
Meanwhile, there is still no official communique from the All India Council for
Technical Education (AICTE) about the engineering seat matrix. When State Higher
Education Minister V. S. Acharya approached the AICTE, he was told that the matrix
will be uploaded on its website by June 28, but till Thursday it was pending. CET
engineering counseling which was rescheduled to start on July 7 may be put off again.
Courtesy: DNA India
