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'What about us?' Karnataka NEET PG students upset as colleges accept 'outsiders'

The students claim that too many students who aren’t from the state are allocated PG seats in Karnataka colleges which falling under the state quota.

Written by : TNM Staff

Ahead of the NEET-PG medical counselling which is set to begin in a few weeks, students from Karnataka have come forward with complaints about the disparities in the seat allocation methods. Alleging that Karnataka’s medical colleges open up their state quota seats which are meant for students from Karnataka to students from other states, several students have been appealing to the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) to address the issue.

“What is the point of having the state quota if students from the state aren’t getting those seats?” asks a frustrated Navya*, a post-MBBS student waiting for the upcoming counselling sessions. “Other states have a state quota too, but those seats are strictly reserved for those students who are from the state. In Karnataka, those seats are being made available to students from other states as well and this puts us at an extreme disadvantage!”

The problem lies with the counselling cycle. “There are generally 3 cycles of counselling held. By the time the second counselling ends, the remaining, unfilled seats are allowed to be taken up by the management. These seats which can be given to us are then given to those who can afford them,” states Ayesha*, another student from the MBBS batch of 2006 who will be going for counselling. “Options then become extremely limited for us because we have studied here and can’t go through another state’s state quota, but those students can study here. So you have around 12,000 to 15,000 students competing for only 2,000 seats!”

This issue was taken up by the DME authorities last year after students drew attention to their current plight. “There was a case that went to the Supreme Court too, but they quashed the domicile rule and said that seats should be given on merit basis,” adds Navya.

The students have been speaking to the DME officials to get the Medical Council of India involved, they say.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is an undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental college entrance examination. It is managed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and was started in 2013. This year’s PG seat counselling sessions are scheduled to start tentatively around the third week of March.

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