Representative image showing students.
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Bengaluru: The menace of middlemen working for private medical colleges in the state seems far from being over.
Several candidates who have been allotted medical seats under the management quota in the provisional results of the mop-up round allotment announced by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) recently are receiving calls from individuals claiming to be college agents, offering discounts on the announced fees.
This even as KEA had introduced face ID recognition in seat allotment process for students this year to curb malpractices.
The agents are reportedly trying to convince candidates to confirm admissions and offering to arrange a meeting with management members to discuss fee discounts.
One of the candidates who got a call from an unknown number from a person said to be the agent for most private medical colleges said, “I was surprised to get a call with a voluntary fee discount. I discussed the same with my parents and we decided not to fall for such traps”.
“When the fees were announced by colleges and we are supposed to pay it at KEA, how can agents get us discounts?,” said a parent.
These agents reportedly existed even before the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was introduced.
“After the introduction of NEET, even management quota seats are being allocated through counselling by the state government authority (KEA) based on the merit of students. Earlier, these agents used to work for colleges to bring students from other states for admissions under the management quota,” said a former vice-chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).
An expert said colleges operate through agents mainly to prevent seats from going vacant.
“If the student does not report to the college or cancels the seat and if the college fails to get a replacement, that seat will be vacant. To avoid losing a student and fees, colleges give offers,” he said.
As per data from KEA, there were no medical seats left vacant in the last two years, even under the management quota.
“There were four seats vacant last year after the mop-up round, but as per directions, we conducted a stray vacancy round and filled those seats,” said H Prasanna, executive director of KEA.
This year, according to provisional results of the mop-up round, 30 seats in two colleges were not chosen by students.