Over 700 MBBS aspirants face a bleak academic start, having lost 10 weeks of classes due to a prolonged third-round counselling
BENGALURU
With the third round of counselling yet to start for more than 1,000 MBBS seats even though first-year classes began in September, more than 700 students waiting for admission are looking at a bleak start to their professional studies. They have already lost 10 weeks of elementary classes. On November 19, a division bench of Karnataka high court delivered divergent verdicts on petitions challenging the provisional allotment list for the third round of counselling. While Justice Jayant Banerji set aside the seat-allotment list of October 24, Justice KV Aravind dismissed students’ petitions.
In all, 1,004 seats are yet to be filled in the third and last round: 443 were recently added, and 561 unfilled seats carried from previous rounds. After seats were added to the matrix midway through counselling, a group of parentsapproached court. They contended that the candidates who picked seats and secured admissions in first and second rounds were allowed to take newly sanctioned seats, which will cause a shuffling in the seats already allotted.
When the already-admitted candidates take up new seats in the third round, their current seats fall vacant.
This provisional vacant seat is picked up by candidates who scored lesser ranks in NEET. The petitioners have termed it “unfair”. Admitting that students and parents are undergoing hardship over allotment delays, KEA Executive Director H Prasanna told all seats should be approved by May or June.The seats approved later would be considered by National Medical Commission only in the next year, Prasanna suggested.
In Anatomy, for instance, unit tests are almost done. Students who join later will be under a lot of stress to cope. We will help them with extra lessons, said Jayanti CR, Dean and Director of Bengaluru’s Oxford Medical College and Research Centre, which has 35 seats to be filled.Some students, like an aspirant from Kerala, are exploring options abroad as classes begin in January.