The Hindu : Karnataka News : Walk-in interviews draw students to dental college

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Karnataka

Walk-in interviews draw students to dental college

Staff Correspondent

Only three students enrolled during first round of counselling

Walk-in interviews were held in Bellary on September 30
Government has sanctioned Rs. 6 crore
to the college this year

BELLARY: The decision to conduct walk-in interviews to fill up the seats of the newly started Government dental college, affiliated to the Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), turned out to be successful with all the seats being filled.

The Government Dental College in Bellary is the first one to be set up in the current academic year, outside Bangalore, with an intake of 50 students. Initially, when only three students were admitted to the college, Minister for Medical Education Ramachandra Gowda took a decision to close down the college.

Another round

He, however, reconsidered his decision to close down the college and instead instructed the college authorities to conduct another round of special counselling at the CET cell in Bangalore on September 28, in an attempt to fill up more seats. He had authorised the principal of the dental college here to conduct walk-in interviews to fill up the remaining seats in Bellary on September 30. It was G. Janardhan Reddy, Minister for Tourism, who is also the district in-charge Minister, who persuaded Mr. Gowda to reconsider his decision.

Accordingly walk-in interviews were held on September 30, in which around 61 students from not only in the State but also from Andhra Pradesh attended and 47 of them secured admission.

Diwakar, Principal of the Dental College, told The Hindu that the norms of the Dental Council of India had been followed before giving admission to the students. Students, who had passed the Pre-University Course examination, scoring over 50 per cent of marks in Physics, Chemistry and Biology with English as the first language (40 per cent and above for SC/ST) were given admission. Prior permission was also sought from the Director of Medical Education before going ahead with the admission, he added.

Experts’ view

Medical professionals said that the name of the Bellary Dental College was not made known to the students during the counselling, and also during the special counselling held on September 28, which had resulted in the seats not being filled up. According to them, going by the fee structure — which was around Rs. 24,590 for the first year and Rs. 9,000 from the second year — students would have preferred the Government college and all the seats should have been filled.

The Government has already sanctioned Rs. 6 crore to the dental college for the current year. A plan for construction of the new college building is ready and the process of inviting tenders has begun.

The building is estimated to cost around Rs. 14 crore. Until the building is ready, the classes would be conducted in the VIMS medical college building.

On the hospital side, a mother clinic had been set up in which the departments of oral pathology, maxillofacial, orthodontia, dentures and periodontal surgery were functioning.

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