The State government is thinking of bringing about a legislation to hold one common entrance test (CET) for all medical seats in the State from next year to replace the present system of making students write four different CETs.
Disclosing this in the Legislative Council while replying to a discussion on the problems due to the delay in announcing CET seat matrix, Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanaprakash R. Patil said medical seat aspirants were writing separate CETs conducted by the State government, COMEDK, linguistic and religious minority educational institutions.
The Minister’s response came in reply to statements by the Opposition that there were problems with respect to writing four different CETs. “The government will definitely bring about a legislation to introduce single CET system. But it is subject to what the courts will say,” he said.
Seat-blocking racket
Admitting that there was a seat-blocking racket in some private medical colleges involving students who surrender their government quota seats in the colleges in the final round of counselling so that the unfilled seats go back to the colleges, the Minister said the government would, this time, conduct a scrutiny after the second round of counselling to know if those who have surrendered seats are habitual offenders. “If there is any prima facie evidence to show that they are surrendering seats by joining hands with the managements, we will file criminal cases and also prosecute them,” he said.
Clarifying that the fees for professional courses had not been increased, he warned colleges of stringent action if they collect higher fees than that prescribed. He said this year’s counselling for professional courses had been delayed to accommodate seats in three new medical colleges that had been granted to the State.
