Giving a much-needed respite to students, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) will conduct an extended round of options entry for Common Entrance Test (CET) seats on Tuesday from 10 am to 10 pm.
This extended round is an attempt to fill up 8,776 engineering seats lying vacant this year.
Students who have participated in the second round of counselling, paid the fees and reported to colleges can participate.
The last date for students to report to colleges has been extended to August 5. But the students should pay the fees prescribed by KEA first, before reporting to colleges on or before August 5, latest by 4 pm.
Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande, who made an unscheduled visit to the KEA in Malleswaram on Monday, said: “KEA will work till midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday. Additional staff from the Directorate of Technical Education will be deputed to ensure there are no problems there.”
The allotment status of the second extended round will be released by Wednesday evening.
“Admission orders will be issued on Wednesday as that is the last day for us to issue them according to a Supreme Court order,” Deshpande said.
Higher Education principal secretary Rajneesh Goel said if a seat is allotted in the extended round, the candidates would automatically lose the seat from the previous round. “Students who get seats in the extended round should pay the fees to the KEA on Wednesday evening itself, so that we can inform Visvesvaraya Technological University of the admissions,” he added.
Deshpande said that 80 new architecture seats approved by the Council of Architecture would be added to the seat matrix.
“Forty seats each from Srinivasaiah Institute of Architecture, Mangalore, and Aakar Academy of Architecture, Bangalore, will be added to the seat matrix and uploaded on the website soon,” he said.
Confused parents flocked to KEA on Monday, which was originally the last day for students to report to their respective colleges. Deshpande’s visit did little to clear the air on the excess fees charged by colleges. Parents complained that not a single official helped them with correct information.
Surmayi G (name changed), a student allotted a seat in Sri Rajiv Gandhi College of Dental Sciences, R T Nagar, waited till 3 pm with her father at KEA. When she reported to the college, she alleged she was asked to pay `50,700 apart from the `35,000 that she paid KEA. ‘’Should I pay this much? I am being asked to pay `7,500 for other fees, `10,000 for consumable dental materials, `2,500 for college digital lab and so on,” a confused Surmayi told Express.
Deshpande told reporters earlier that “strict action” would be initiated against colleges that charge exorbitant fees from students.
ISMH Counselling
Meanwhile, the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) said it is yet to hear from the government on the seat matrix for Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISMH) courses. RGUHS Registrar (Evaluation) N S Ashok Kumar said a team from the Central Council of Indian Medicine will conduct an inspection, after which a communication will be made to the state on the seat matrix. “We are likely to start counselling by October end,’’ he said.