Students in soup over changed CET counselling date

The counselling schedule for the Common Entrance Test (CET) candidates has put the students and parents in trouble once again.

The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) which had to announce seats in second round of counselling on August 22 has postponed it to 25.
Based on the earlier date, the Consortium for Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K) had set August 23 as the deadline to surrender seats.

Now, with the change in date by the KEA, students and parents are in a fix as they are  forced to surrender their seats, under Comed-K before the second round of CET counselling.

If the students fail to surrender their seats on August 23, they will lose Rs 50,000 paid to the Comed-K.
‘Surrender seats’
Later, they will have to surrender their seats at the college level allowing mismanagement of seats by private institutions.
Comed-K Chief Executive A S Srikanth told Deccan Herald: “ We fixed the date after KEA announced its schedule to make it easy for students. We cannot change the schedule in the last minute. Students from all over the country will be arriving in the City for counselling. And their travel plans will be fixed.”
However, the Department of Pre University Education has a different take on the issue.

Department’s PRO Narasimha Murthy said the dates were rescheduled to allow students more time to choose seats. Hence, the question of changing the timetable does not arise.

“If the Comed-K timetable is hurting students, it should revise the dates to benefit students,” he said. Caught in the fix, parents are a harassed lot, as they will have to pay more.

High fee
Explaining the situation, a harried parent said: “ My daughter has secured a seat in Information Science under Comed-K. We are waiting for the second round of counselling in the hope of a better college. Now, we are in the soup as we have to pay a high fee to retain the Comed-K seat.

“We are hesitant to surrender the seat, as we are unsure of our daughter getting a seat in a good college under the CET,” he added.
The parent dubbed the CET this year as flawed, placing undue burden on students and parents.