THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The admissions to medical and dental colleges in the state were completed on Thursday with the remaining 690 MBBS and 450 BDS seats filled through spot admission. Even as the admission process has been completed, scores of students having higher ranks could not secure an MBBS seat because of the exorbitant fees. The allotment process was completed on August 29 and spot admission was held on the following two days for filling the seats in 23 of the self-financing medical colleges. Despite a lot of confusion on the first day, the second day of spot admission went smoothly. On day one, the students and parents had protested against the Controller of Entrance Examinations’ decision to give priority to fill the quota set aside for students from other states ahead of the students from the state. About 63 seats were earmarked for students from outside the state.
The demand of some self-financing colleges to produce a demand draft of Rs 6 lakh also led to chaos. Apart from this, some of the students who took admissions the other day had demanded return of the demand draft, which also created some issues. With many of the eligible students not taking up admissions over the demand of bank guarantee, the government said it would stand guarantee to banks for providing guarantee of Rs 6 lakh to the students. The government on Wednesday had reached an agreement with both scheduled and nationalised banks in this regard.
Meanwhile, nine self-financing medical college managements have said they would not insist on bank guarantees. With the admissions over in the medical college seats, the parents and students would now be looking ahead to the Fee Regulatory Committee that has been asked to fix the final fees within three months.
LDF to bring in legislation to rein in SFMCs
Making the Left Front’s stance clear in the self-financing fiasco, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the government would bring in legislation to control the managements. The government will not allow the self-financing managements to have their way, he said. “The Chief Minister has made it clear no eligible students will lose their opportunity for medical education. Medical education has become very complex. The Supreme Court verdict in effect says only the rich need to pursue medical education,” Kodiyeri said in a Facebook post. The CPM state chief said issues in the self-financing sector were owing to the decisions taken by the previous UDF Government. Now the attempt is to put the blame on the Left Government, he said.
The government’s inefficiency and ineptitude allowed the self-financing college managements to get things done as per their whims. The students became victims of the unholy nexus between managements and the government. Ramesh Chennithala, Opposition leader.