Number of medical seats declines in Karnataka

Updated on: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The number of medical seats in Karnataka this year has fallen by around 400, a direct result of the dissolution of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the consequent move to re-inspect colleges that were granted approval in April this year.

Recognition granted to no less than five medical colleges in the State have been withdrawn and the student intake of KIMS, Hubli, has been reduced from 150 to 100.

The list includes three government colleges (in Bidar, Shimoga and Raichur) and the S.S. Institute of Medical Science and Research, all of which were granted permission during inspection by the now-dissolved MCI inspection teams.

Approvals, for admission or intake, given to 85 colleges across the country have been repealed and inspections are already under way, a member of the freshly-constituted MCI governing body told The Hindu.

Seats on offer

A total of 1,339 medical seats and 763 dental seats will be on offer on Thursday.

The list on offer is further impoverished by the fact that two “deemed-to-be” universities, Yenepoya Medical College and K.S. Hegde Medical College in Mangalore, have pulled out of the CET admission process. They have refused to admit students under the subsidised government quota.

Further, the Government has also decided to not admit students to the Ambedkar Medical College (AMC) in Bangalore, which has been denied permission to admit for over five years now. The AMC case is in court.

Top officials in the Directorate of Medical Education said the “last-minute” order caught them unawares as the seat matrix had been prepared.

“It will affect students and the seats may re-enter in the casual vacancy round, but students will have to bear the brunt,” an official said. The inspection team, which visited these colleges in April, had approved all these colleges. But now re-inspection orders have been sent.

This move will further complicate the admission process for medical seat aspirants, which, given the paucity of seats, is already a tight-rope walk.

Being forced to opt for seats out of an incomplete seat matrix, many of them will find that the private college admission process conducted by COMED-K will clash with their second round of admission in July. “This will further complicate matters both for COMED-K and for us. Students too will find it difficult to make a ‘correct choice' and may prefer to wait for the second round,” a Karnataka Examinations Authority official said.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Medical Education has written to the Union Government apprising them of the situation and seeking clarity on the issue by the second round, sources said.

Inspections in the government colleges will begin on June 11. The new inspection team comprises academics from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore, St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore and JIPMER in Puducherry.

Number of medical seats declines in Karnataka

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