Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Third phase of medical counselling ends

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, SEPT. 29. Barring minor hiccups, the third and final phase of counselling for admission to various medical and dental colleges for the current academic year was completed on Wednesday. In the process, the NTR University of Health Sciences that conducted the counselling fulfilled the September 30 deadline set by the Supreme Court for completing the admission to medical and dental colleges.

The university authorities took up the final phase of counselling for admission to 589 seats in the medical and 82 seats in the dental streams. Of the total seats, 339 were in the Government colleges, including 119 seats set aside due to uncertainty on the implementation of the rule of reservation for Muslim minorities, while the remaining 250 seats were in the private colleges.

Precautionary steps

In addition, the university could also succeed in making admission to 25 seats in the Guntur Medical College that were set aside by the Medical Council of India as the college did not fulfil the prerequisites for their continuance. However, the university authorities succeeded in convincing the Government and the MCI that the seats did not fall under the MCI purview as the college was set up much earlier than 1992, the year from which the MCI guidelines came into force.

Unlike the previous years when the sliding and conversions turned controversial creating a ruckus on the university campus, the university authorities took enough steps to ensure that such incidents did not occur. Faced with the shortage of time in view of the Supreme Court directive, the university authorities had to conduct counselling much beyond the scheduled hours and the process continued till late into the night on all the four days.

Many complaints

There were, however, a host of complaints over the facilities provided on the campus for the aspirants and their parents coming from different parts of the State. While there were routine protests over the seating and accommodation for the students, a majority of parents were worried over the lack of proper security arrangements for the "huge amounts of money" they carried with them.

The university officials including the registrar, P. Jayakar Babu, had to face the anger of a section of the aspirants who arrived on the campus in anticipation of the commencement of counselling for admission to Indian medicine systems. Though the university announced the postponement of the process, the communication of the decision through select newspapers resulted in several parents being unaware of any such development.

Furore over delay

This apart, there was also a furore over the delay in the commencement of the third phase owing to technical problems. The anxious parents who were waiting for the counselling to start could not bear the delay due to some problem in the computers that continued for over seven hours on the first day (Sunday) of the third phase of counselling. This resulted in heated arguments between the parents and the university staff. But the situation was restored to normal and the university authorities initiated adequate steps to see that such problems did not crop up.

Towards the end of the counselling process, a communication gap triggered anxiety among parents of seat aspirants. The university authorities took some time in announcing the vacant seats for conversion of reservations into various categories. This caused confusion among students and they were caught unawares if they would get a seat at all, for neither their names nor the ranks were being announced in the PA system.

However, the agitated lot could be pacified with the authorities coming up with clarity on the seat position and their convertibility late in the night.

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