PROBLEM SOLVING: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy addressing an all-party meeting on the admissions issue in Bangalore on Saturday. Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy (left), Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council H.K. Patil (t hird from left) and Vatal Nagaraj (right), MLA, are seen. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Separate seats for students in the general merit category from the State cannot be set aside and they will have to compete with their counterparts at the national level for 35 per cent of seats earmarked under the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Bill, 2006.

Minority professional colleges will have to join non-minority college managements to conduct a single entrance test. They cannot hold a separate test as announced. The State Government will ensure that the test is not held.

The marks secured in the Common Entrance Test (CET) and the entrance test of private college managements will be considered to decide merit for admission to MBBS and BDS courses. Although this rule, included in the Bill in the wake of a High Court verdict, will apply this year, the Government will consult the Advocate-General to find out whether the court order can be challenged.

In effect, the all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday chose to maintain status quo and go strictly by the Bill. Legal experts had ruled out any other option. Most of the nine amendments proposed by former Law Minister H.K. Patil were declared unfeasible, at least this year.

With the Supreme Court ruling out reservation in private professional colleges and the 93rd Constitutional Amendment stipulating reservations only for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBCs), the Advocate-General and other legal experts told the Government that it could not explore reservation for candidates from the State. "Now, we have to go only by what is there in the Bill this year," Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy told presspersons here.

However, the Government agreed to consider the Opposition's proposal to promulgate an Ordinance on giving weightage to both second PUC (pre-university course) marks and the CET to decide merit for medical and dental seats next year. This year, no purpose is served as the CET process is in an advanced stage.

The Chief Minister will soon meet representatives of college managements to find out whether they can give up some seats. These seats can then be offered through the CET. But the Government is certain that the fee will be decided by the Rangavittalachar Committee.

The Venkataraman Committee overseeing professional college admissions sent letters to college principals recently, giving the option to fill a few seats through the CET.

Mr. Shankaramurthy expressed concern over the CET losing importance. Mr. H.K. Patil asked why the Government had delayed seeking the Advocate-General's opinion when students' interests were at stake.

One option before the Government was to increase the number of MBBS seats in its colleges and speed up its efforts to open six medical colleges. However, the conditions of the Medical Council of India (MCI) have to be met. "We have given the new colleges whatever funds they have asked for. Construction is going on. But the MCI does not look only at that. Professors, faculty and other factors come into play," Medical Education Minister V.S. Acharya said.

Mr. Patil contended that the appropriation and distribution of seats were possible with the 93rd Amendment. He was not convinced with the Government's explanation that PUC marks could not be considered for MBBS/BDS seats this year.

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