Self-financing Ayurveda college managements have agreed to surrender merit seats to which they had made admissions citing a clause in their agreement with the government. The decision comes in the wake of a series of reports in ‘Express’ highlighting irregularities in admission to Ayurveda seats.
In a meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to resolve the allotment mess, it was also decided that admission to 47 merit seats surrendered by the managements as well as 104 vacant seats in government and aided Ayurveda colleges will be done through a fourth and final allotment by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE). As per the earlier agreement between the Government and self-financing Ayurveda colleges, the number of allotments to Ayurveda seats this year was limited to three. A Government Order, which was issued on the basis of the agreement, empowered the managements to fill those merit seats which fell vacant after the third allotment.
“It was decided that 47 merit seats in self-financing colleges which lay vacant after the third allotment will be surrendered to the government. The admission to these seats as well as vacant seats in government Ayurveda colleges will be done by the Entrance Commissioner,” Health Secretary K Ellangovan told ‘Express’ after the meeting. By this decision, merit category students in self-financing colleges, who have to pay an annual tuition fees of `50,000 will get a chance to opt for seats in government colleges where the annual tuition fees is `12,000. It will also pave the way for those students, who have been left out of the allotment process due to lower ranks, to get admission to merit seats thus vacated in self-financing colleges.
“We had made admission to merit seats only on the basis of the agreement which empowered us to do so. We have not carried out any irregularities in the admission process as widely alleged,” said M Muraleedharan, secretary of Kerala State Indian Systems of Medicine Self-financing Management Association. According to the agreement reached in the meeting, managements will be entitled to make admission to merit seats in their colleges which lie vacant even after the fourth and final allotment. As per the directions of the Justice James Committee, the process has to be completed by October 23. Also, no spot admissions will be made to the vacant merit seats thereafter.
“Though the decisions arrived at the meeting are welcome, the move to do away with spot admissions is aimed at giving managements a chance to fill vacant merit seats for monetary gains,” M Shajar Khan, State convenor of the All-India Save Education Committee, said.