Bengaluru: Thousands of CET seat aspirants are confused over the medical and dental seat matrix following the announcement by the private medical and dental college associations that they will not surrender any seats for government quota students. As per the calendar of events published by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA), ‘option entry’ for the allotment of seats should begin on June 14. But now officials are not sure about starting the process as per the calendar of events.
According to the officials at the Medical Education Department and KEA, the calendar of events was confirmed after private medical and dental college managements signed a consensual agreement on seat matrix and fee structure. "As per the agreement, it was decided to increase the fee structure by 10% compared to previous years while the seat matrix remained the same. As per the seat matrix, these colleges should have surrendered 40% of their intake to the government CET students," said an officer from the KEA.
But private colleges backtracked from the agreement following the NEET ordinance. Their claim is that as per the ordinance, they will admit only NEET students. They want the state government to implement the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006. As per the act 50% of the seats in private colleges should be reserved for SC/ST and OBC students and the fee of the course will be decided upon based on the cost per student. This will be fixed by the fee fixation committee, to be headed by a retired high court judge.
Confusion: If private colleges do not surrender 40% of their intake, government CET students are expected to lose around 800 medical and around 1,500 dental seats. "We want the state government to sort out all differences at the earliest and ensure that these seats will be available for allotment," urged Nilkanta Adiga, a medical seat aspirant. Minister’s views: On Friday, the state higher education minister Mr.TB Jayachandra informed that there will not be any change in the CET calendar of events. "All the confusion will be resolved soon," he assured.
