BENGALURU: It is official now. Under-graduate seat aspirants for Ayush courses in the state will have to appear for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) from this year.
The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has announced this decision taken by the state Department of Health and Family Welfare following the decision taken by the Union Ministry of Ayush.
Based on this, KEA has not included Ayush courses in the applications released for Common Entrance Test (CET) 2018. As per KEA, “Candidates who are willing to do Ayush courses must register with NEET, and KEA will not conduct tests for Ayush courses from 2018.”
As per the announcement by KEA on its website, “Admission to Ayush courses in both government and private Ayush colleges will be made according to NEET ranking of the students from the academic year 2018-19.” Ayush courses cover Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani and Homoeopathy.
The Union Ayush Ministry had announced conducting NEET for Ayush courses a year ago, in the academic year 2017-18, but it had not been accepted by several states. So its implementation was postponed to 2018-19.
No room for OCI and PIO candidates
Candidates from Oversees Citizen of India (OCI) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO) categories cannot enrol for CET. For CET 2017, these candidates were allowed to participate in counselling and were also allowed to take seats allotted under the private quota, apart from 15 per cent seats reserved for NRI quota.
When asked, the officials from state Higher Education Department clarified that last year this was done following a High Court order. “During CET 2017 we allowed them because there was a court order and as there is no amendments to the KEA Act, we need an court order again to allow them this year,” said an official.
Important dates of CET
Online applications accepted from February 1 to 26
Last date to pay application fee - February 28
Download admission ticket on April 10
CET will be held on April 18 and 19
Kannada language test for Horanadu-Gadinadu candidates on April 24