BANGALORE: Seeking an early consensus on the vexed professional college admissions issue, the State Government on Saturday constituted two committees, one each for engineering and medical education courses.

Each panel has three private college management representatives and secretaries to the departments of Higher Education, Medical Education and Law.

The two panels will deliberate upon the pending issues of seat-sharing and fee structure and submit comprehensive reports within the next two days.

These reports, which will form the basis for a consensus formula, will be reviewed in detail later at the official level, Law Minister Basavaraj Horatti told presspersons after a meeting with the managements.

The former Chief Secretary B.R. Prabhakara, the former Medical Education Secretary Bethkarur and the principal director of B.N. Medical College Rajashekhar will be the management representatives on the committee for medical and dental courses.

Presided over by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Saturday's meeting was attended by Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy, Karnataka Private Medical Colleges' Association president Shamanur Shivshankarappa and the department officials concerned, besides Mr. Horatti and managements' representatives.

The managements reacted positively to a call by the Chief Minister to resolve the issues out of court and offer a helping hand for meritorious students from the financially weaker sections.

But they wanted the Government to focus on the contentious issues related to the fee structure.

Mr. Kumaraswamy told them that the Government was willing for a negotiated settlement within the parameters of law laid down by the Supreme Court in the P.A. Inamdar case.

In this judgment, there was a mention of consensus between the Government and managements regarding seat-sharing, he pointed out and added that the State wanted to avoid the confusion of the last two years.

Later briefing presspersons, Mr. Horatti too stressed on the Government's keenness to avoid any controversy and maintained that constituting the two committees was a step in that direction.

Sounding optimistic about a solution, Mr. Shankaramurthy promised that the two groups would ensure that students and parents were not put to any hardships.

Although due to political reasons the CET process was delayed this year, the Government would see to it that all pending issues were resolved by March, he said.

Admitting the significance of the Supreme Court verdict on the admissions issue, he, however, said the court orders would not come in the way if a consensus was worked out with the managements.

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