BENGALURU: Aspirants for postgraduate medical seats in the state for the academic year 2019-20 have urged the state government to remove the open category allowed at private colleges under state counselling.
Under this category, even candidates from other states from across India can apply and appear for counselling. But, seat aspirants from Karnataka say that they are not allowed to take part in the counselling in other states. “When we are not allowed to get seats in other states except Karnataka, why is the state government allowing students from other states here?” questioned a student.
Under the seat sharing, 33% goes to government, 42% to private colleges, 15% to NRIs and 10% to institutional and in-service quota. The 42% given to private medical colleges earlier used to be called as COMEDK (consortium of medical engineering and dental colleges of Karnataka) quota. Speaking about it, authorities from COMEDK said, “Under this 42% seats,we are allowing students from outside Karnataka to appear for counselling.”
But seat aspirants from the state say that they are even ready to pay the same fees fixed to students from outside Karnataka under the open category. “We never said no to paying the fee. As there are a lack of postgraduate medical seats in the state, we are demanding not to allow students from outside Karnataka,” a student said.
Students said that they will approach the Chief Minister and the authorities of private medical colleges soon, and if they don’t oblige they will go to court.
“In 2018, when we approached the court, the notification was out. So, this year we will be approaching the concerned authorities before the notification,” one student explained.