JOIN USAyurveda admissions: It's deja vu
This year too, the State department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) has failed to work out the seat matrix, despite Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) having fixed the counselling for admissions to Ayurveda on June 23 and 24.
The situation is, thanks to the ongoing inspections by a Central apex body that will distinguish “suitable” colleges from the deficient.
And as there’s absolutely no clarity on the list of Ayurveda colleges that would finally be eligible for admissions this year, counselling for the stream has been postponed by over a month.
This year too, the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), the statutory body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is yet to complete its annual inspections of the 57-odd government, private and private aided ayurveda colleges affiliated to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) in time.
The director of Ayush left for New Delhi on Wednesday to "find a solution to tide over the mess".
In the meanwhile, RGUHS has written to the State government asking for the seat matrix, as the University too is not sure about the number of seats available. The Local Inspection Committee (LIC) of the University has completed conducting inspections for this year in February. More than a handful of colleges have been found non-compliant. Till the CCIM furnishes its list, nothing will be certain, says officials.
Final authority
The bigger problem faced by RGUHS is ascertaining the hierarchy. Officials say that CCIM's list is not sacrosanct.
In 2010-11, CCIM denied permission to 40 colleges to allow admissions, including the Sri Sri College of Ayurvedic Sciences and Research, Kanakapura (the CBI is probing into this case) and the Kannada Balaga Society's Rural Ayurveda Medical College, Hospital and Research Center, Belgaum.
Ironically, the department of Ayush under the Central Ministry had the final say. Overruling CCIM's decision, it granted permission to 29 blacklisted colleges. To make the matters worse, except for a handful of colleges, the remaining ones too made it to the seat matrix, "through murky" dealings, as RGUHS terms.
The colleges that have not received permission have their own way of making up the losses.
RGUHS said that despite the many warnings, blacklisted colleges still went ahead and admitted students under the management quota.
Once this is achieved, the colleges then approach courts and obtain an interim order allowing the students to write exams, and finally RGUHS has to announce the examination results.
In 2009-10, 11 colleges were not given permission by the CCIM. Of these, eight colleges have managed to obtain results by approaching court.
Beware of fake colleges: RGUHS
RGUHS officials say that students need to be cautious about getting into ayurveda colleges that have dubious background. It has decided to host the list of blacklisted colleges, apart from conducting surprise inspections during the coming academic year.