BENGALURU: Post-graduate (PG) medical seat aspirants in the state can finally heave a sigh of relief as they don’t have to attend counselling conducted by various agencies. The state Department of Medical Education has decided to conduct a centralised or common counselling to allot PG medical seats starting this year. It will be conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).
As per the department officials, PG medical seat aspirants had to undergo some 10 counsellings conducted by various agencies. For instance, the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) conducts counselling for seats in its member colleges, KEA holds another counselling for seats in government colleges and for government quota seats in private colleges.Medical Education Department Director Dr Sachidanand said, “The entire seat allotment will be based on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) results. The NEET is scheduled to be held in December. Following the NEET results, we will conduct centralised counselling in the state.”
Another official of the department said, “COMEDK used to hold its own counselling and there are at least six deemed medical universities which conduct their own counselling. Besides, there are two more agencies - one religious minority and another a linguistic minority -- that conduct counselling. It was stressful for the candidates to go to to all these sessions and try their luck everywhere.