With the State government failing to convince deemed universities to release government quota seats into the Common Entrance Test (CET) pool, medical seat aspirants waiting for the second round of counselling stand to lose.
Although private medical colleges and religious minority colleges have agreed to give seats, deemed universities have still not relented.
If they do not give their share of seats, a large number of students may have to be dependent on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). If these colleges had agreed to give their seats, about 412 seats would be added to the CET pool.
There has been no breakthrough so far, although Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil had a round of talks with representatives of deemed universities and urged them to give 25 per cent of their seats as the government quota in eight deemed universities.
Many of these colleges have legislators and Ministers on their Board.
A parent of a medical seat aspirant said that during the first round, around 2,365 medical seats were available. “My son has obtained around 2,000 rank and has not been allotted a medical seat, as nearly 572 seats were allotted to students under the Hyderabad Karnataka quota. If the government fails to exert pressure and obtain deemed universities’ seats, he will have to write NEET phase-2 scheduled later this month,” he said.
Last year, six colleges under deemed universities had given 127 medical seats that were added to the CET pool.
Many of the deemed universities, which until last year conducted their own entrance tests, did not do so this year after the Supreme Court said all seats would have to be filled through NEET.
P. Balakrishna Shetty, Vice-Chancellor of Sri Siddhartha University, said they would comply with the Supreme Court judgement and fill their seats using NEET scores. Mr. Patil said: “Some colleges, which have a prior agreement with the State government, will make seats available in the second extended round,” he said.
