Guest column: End licence raj' in medical education, increase number of seats

The real problem with the medical admissions in the state is the huge gap between the demand for seats and the number of seats available. This huge disparity has made people find ways to make a back-door entry into colleges. This has resulted in scams.

One admission test like NEET cannot solve the issues surrounding the medical admissions in our country until we increase the number of seats. Private colleges are not permitting the increase of seats, fearing it would end up in bringing down the rate of the medical seats. The Government is also controlling the number of seats as it has a share in the seats of the private colleges.

Even if the state government comes out with the idea of the ‘one state one admission’ rule, the problem may not be solved. The reason being, colleges would demand money from the students after admissions citing various reasons. So such ideas would prove futile.

It is often claimed that the admission process was used to convert black money into white. So those who engaged in this racket would find some pretext or the other to make money in the name of medical seats.

The best way to eradicate this problem would be making the medical education field free of the ‘licence raj’. Let colleges decide their intake and let the government fix the minimum standard required.
Ashwin Mahesh is urban expert