Spirits sag as waitlist lengthens at Kilpauk Medical College

CHENNAI: 09/05/2013: Medical College applications issued from today at Kilpauk Medical College and some of the students and parents are waiting from 4.00 am onwards in Chennai on Thursday. Photo: V. Ganesan.

On Friday, counselling for medical seats at Kilpauk Medical College progressed at snail’s pace, compared to the speed with which the vacancies were filled up on the first two days. Parents became listless and the weather made it worse. The guardian of one ward said, “It felt like punishment to sit in the shamiana. Counselling at Anna University is more transparent and despite the large numbers, they manage to fill 5,000 seats in a day,” he said. Many also complained that the afternoon round of counselling began late.

At KMC, the crowd had thinned considerably on the third day. Candidates from the various categories were told that they had been waitlisted. As seats in the BC categories had been allotted, they were told that they would be intimated when the second round of counselling begins.

On Saturday, the last day of the first phase of counselling, 286 seats will be allotted; of this, 226 seats are reserved for candidates from the SC category.

Though several students had been told they were waitlisted, the official website of the Directorate of Medical Education had no information on waitlisted candidates, said N.C. Chandrasekaran, who had accompanied a candidate. “We were told that he had been waitlisted but they would not tell us the number of students ahead of him. He has also applied for veterinary courses and engineering. If only the officials would give us concrete answers about our chances, we would be less worried,” he said.

Officials at the DME said that when the 285 seats for the three medical colleges are sanctioned, the seat allotment would include reservation for all-India quota and the various special categories. According to an official it would take time to upload the details of waitlisted candidates. But they would be available for viewing. “We had planned to conduct counselling for the dental colleges also but as some more seats are awaited for medical colleges, counselling for BDS and for seats surrendered by private medical colleges to the government will be conducted in the second phase,” the official said.