800 medical seats missing from Round 1

Aspiring doctors from the State might have to wait until the second round of CET to confirm their seats, as five government medical colleges will not feature in the first round of counselling scheduled from June 20 to June 22. Besides, a hike in intake in four other government medical colleges is yet to come through.

 Around 500 medical seats will not be available for the first round of counselling, as colleges are yet to receive permission from Medical Council of India(MCI) to admit students for 2011-12. The five government colleges that have not received permission include the five government medical colleges at Bidar, Hassan, Mandya, Raichur, and Shimoga.

As per the seat matrix issued on June 11 by the Medical Education department , 26 medical colleges will offer 1,276 seats through CET during the first round. These include seats from five government medical colleges, and 21 private medical colleges. The Medical Education department has also released the seat matrix for dental seats - the first round will feature 755 dental seats from 37 dental colleges.

This is not the first time that the five government medical colleges have faced problems in getting permission from MCI. The past three years has seen these colleges granted permission only after rectifying certain shortcomings pointed out by the MCI inspectors.
According to MCI regulations, medical colleges have to get permission every year to admit a new batch during its first five years of functioning.

When contacted, Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas expressed surprise and said that he was not aware of the missing government colleges. “I will look into it as soon as I get to office tomorrow”, he said.

In contrast, medical colleges expressed no surprise at the action of MCI. One of the directors of the medical colleges told Deccan Herald, “This has been the story for the last three years. Under some silly pretence, the MCI refuses to recognize our college”.

While these colleges have failed the first inspection, a second round of inspection, after rectifying the mistakes pointed out, has already been held by a MCI team in the past one week. The decision to grant renewal of permission will be taken by MCI in two days.

Increase in intake

The proposed hike in four government medical colleges -- Bangalore Medical College(BMC), Mysore Medical College(MMC), Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences(KIMS) at Hubli, and Vijayangara Institute of Medical Sciences(VIMS) at Bellary -- are also yet to come through.

While BMC and KIMS was expecting a hike in intake from 150 to 250, MMC and VIMS was expecting a hike in intake from 100 to 150. Ramdas said that he would be going to New Delhi in another two days to meet with officials of MCI and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to push through the hike in intake.