BENGALURU:The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has completed counselling for undergraduate engineering courses for the academic year 2015-16, but candidates aspiring for admissions to Ayurveda and Homeopathy courses will have to wait longer.
The Department of AYUSH has not sent the seat matrix for these courses to KEA, and so counselling is being delayed. Most students aspiring to join Ayurveda and Homeopathy have joined engineering courses instead in view of the uncertainty.
KEA officials said they had asked the AYUSH Department for the seat matrix, but were told that it would be sent by the first week of September. “For the last two years we have been facing this problem with AYUSH courses. We will conduct counseling once we receive the matrix,” a KEA official said.
Over 76 colleges in the state offer AYUSH courses. Of them, five are government colleges, five aided and the rest private unaided colleges. The total number of seats available under these courses is 3,890 and of that 700 are government quota seats.
In Demand: A look at the data on seats allotted during CET 2014 shows the strong demand for these courses. Though counselling was delayed during CET 2014, out of the 820 seats in Ayurveda, 809 were allotted. In Homeopathy, of the 248, only two seats were left unfilled. The number of seats available for Unani course was 73 of which 70 were allotted. In Naturopathy, 79 seats were available and 73 got filled.
“Many students who had opted for engineering seats surrendered them after we released the AYUSH seat matrix. This year also, we expect the same to happen due to which the number of vacant seats in engineering courses will go up,” a KEA official said.
Reason For Delay: The reason the colleges offering Ayurveda and Homeopathy courses have not released the seat matrix is because these colleges have not received affiliation for the academic year 2015-16 from the central government.
Without knowing the status of affiliation, the AYUSH Department cannot prepare the seat matrix. Director of AYUSH Department Vijaykumar Gogi was unavailable for comments and the joint director did not respond to calls. According to sources, the AYUSH Department did not invite the Committee from Central Council for Indian Medicine (CCIM) to visit the colleges for renewal of affiliation.
There was delay in release of seat matrix during both CET 2013 and 2014. During those years, the seat matrix was out by August, but this year it might get delayed further.