The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : CET: State quota of seats has greatly come down

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

CET: State quota of seats has greatly come down

Nagesh Prabhu and S. Rajendran

Nagesh Prabhu and

S. Rajendran

BANGALORE: The government seats in private medical, engineering and dental colleges in Karnataka have substantially declined over the years. If this is the case with undergraduate courses, admissions to postgraduate subjects in medicine were beyond the reach of even the rich what with admissions to some subjects (paediatrics) being quoted at over Rs. 1 crore in the State.

The Janata Dal (S)-BJP Government has sorted out the seat-sharing formula with the private managements well ahead of the Common Entrance Test (CET) this year, but the fact that successive governments have surrendered an increasing number of seats to private college managements is a reflection of the manner in which the Government has been compelled to bend. The seats in the government pool have substantially dropped over the last six years.

Litigation has added to the problem. On April 12, 2005, a seven-member Supreme Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India delivered a judgment that said that the States had no powers to insist on a State quota or impose reservation policy on unaided private professional educational institutions.

In the last six years, from 2001-2007, the percentage of government quota of seats in all three major professional courses — medical, dental and engineering — has declined. Ironically, a large number of the dental seats in private colleges remained unfilled in the last academic year and they had sought Government assistance. The Government was, however, helpless since the CET counselling had been completed by then.

In 2002, the seat-sharing ratio between the Government and private college managements was 85:15 in the medical course. It declined to 40:60 in 2007.

In the case of dental course, it was 85:15 in 2002 and was 35:65 in 2007. In the engineering course, the percentage of seats lost by the Government was less. The seat-sharing ratio between government and private colleges in engineering was 85:15 in 2002 and it came to 55:45 in 2007.

The Government and private colleges enjoyed a 50:50 seat-sharing formula in medical and dental courses and 60:40 in engineering in 2006-07.

The Government lost its quota of seats in professional courses following the Supreme Court verdict in 2005.

The Supreme Court judgment, however, laid down that a strict procedure of conducting CET should be adopted to ensure fulfilment of twin objectives — transparency and merit. Many argued that the judgment on the admission was a major assault on State students.

The former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily, under whose tenure CET was introduced in 1993, has been stating that the delay and neglect on the part of the State legislatures and Parliament to enact laws were the main reasons for the decline in the State quota.

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