The medical seats that were “missing” from the seat matrix of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) on Tuesday and Wednesday were gradually uploaded on Thursday. A few more are expected to be uploaded over the next two days.
Minister of State for Medical Education Sharan Prakash Patil told presspersons here on Thursday that the 416 seats — 170 from two government medical colleges: Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences and Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences, and 246 from seven minority colleges — had not been uploaded earlier. As a result, only 1,588 seats were displayed for students to enter their options.
By 9 p.m. on Thursday, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) had displayed 1,990 seats.
Dr. Patil said that all the seats would be uploaded latest by July 6.
“By July 15, our position should be clear as it is the last day for the Medical Council of India to give recognition to courses and colleges,” he added.
Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande said that the government had delayed announcement of the seat matrix “keeping in mind the interest of the students” as it wanted more number of seats to be added to the government quota.
COMEDK counselling
Commenting on the panic that the commencement of the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) counselling created as it began before the counselling for Common Entrance Test (CET) rank holders,
Mr. Deshpande said: “During the COMEDK counselling, for the 683 medical seats, 348 students confirmed the seats, while 310 took provisional allotment. Only 21 of those students who confirmed are from Karnataka, and 113 who took provisional seats are from here. The latter have time till July 13 to surrender their seats.”
Only two of the 254 who confirmed dental seats under COMEDK are from the State, he added.