The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : COMED-K to move court on `structural weightage' issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 11, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

COMED-K to move court on `structural weightage' issue

By Rasheed Kappan

BANGALORE, APRIL 10. The Consortium of Medical, Engineering, and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) has decided to move the Supreme Court after the Venkataraman Committee overseeing professional college admissions reportedly turned down a proposal to allot 10 per cent of postgraduate seats under the "structural weightage" provision.

The Venkataraman panel, it is learnt, had asked the COMED-K colleges to fill all their seats as per the merit list prepared on the basis of the postgraduate entrance test conducted by the consortium in February.

"We are going strictly by the court order. Quota other than merit-based may not be permissible at all," a committee member told The Hindu.

Some of the private unaided colleges attached to the consortium wanted to fill 10 per cent of their management quota seats under the structural weightage provision and the remaining 90 per cent according to the COMED-K merit list.

Of the 10 per cent, the colleges proposed to allot two per cent each for Karnataka students, sportspersons who had won medals and prizes at the university level, children of college staff, children of college alumni who had served the colleges for more than five years, and children of persons who had contributed to the development of the society/trust running the colleges, sources said.

The COMED-K chairman, R.L. Jalappa, said the consortium would contest the matter in the Supreme Court.

Postgraduate students are also required to teach and treat patients at the college hospitals. They are paid Rs. 2,500 each as stipend. Merit could not be the only criteria while selecting them. They should have the aptitude too, he observed.

Some minority colleges had reportedly proposed to fill 35 per cent of the 50 per cent management quota seats by admitting non-minority students and leave the rest for minority students. The panel is learnt to have objected to this and directed the colleges to fill the entire management quota with minority students.

The consortium, sources said, is likely to contest this as well in the court. The Government is reportedly of the view that if the minority colleges did not find enough students from the minority community, the seats should be shifted to the Government's Common Entrance Test (CET) quota.

However, the proposed legal measures are not likely to affect the postgraduate admission process.

After a series of meetings with the private college managements, the Venkataraman panel had cleared the COMED-K postgraduate entrance test and allowed the colleges which submitted their merit lists to go ahead with their admissions, provided the fee panel too cleared them.

As per the court directions, the postgraduate admission process is to be completed by April 30.

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