JOIN USMore delay in MCI nod for five govt colleges
The MCI has extended the deadline for granting permission from June 15 to June 30, as it has to deal with a huge backlog of applications for permissions.
A notice on the MCI website says: "The deadline for issue of Letter of Permission for Undergraduate courses for the academic year 2011-12 has been extended with the prior approval of Central Government from June 15 to June 30”. The note added: "This extension is applicable only for this year as an exceptional case".
With this, seats from the five relatively new government medical colleges in Bidar, Hassan, Mandya, Raichur and Shimoga are unlikely to be added in the first round of counselling scheduled for Monday. This amounts to nearly 500 seats.
Hike in intake
The delay in granting permissions has been a constant feature for the new medical colleges over the past few years. The government is also expecting a hike in intake in older medical colleges, amounting to another 200 seats.
The Medical Education department released a seat matrix on June 11, with 26 medical colleges offering 1,276 seats through CET during the first round. These include seats in five government medical colleges and 21 private medical colleges. The department has also released the seat matrix for dental colleges - the first round will feature 755 dental seats from 37 colleges.
Counselling on schedule
Higher Education Minister V S Acharya said that engineering and medical counselling would go on as per schedule, and that 145 engineering colleges out of 185 colleges had indicated seat availability. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has released a list of engineering colleges which have been approved for 2011-12.
Acharya appealed to Central apex bodies like Medical Council of India and Central Institute of Indian Medicine to announce the eligibility of colleges before CET counselling is initiated every year.
“We are yet to receive indication from the Ayush department on seat availability. In a way, all the states have been put to inconvenience because of the delay in the announcement on the eligibility of the colleges. They should do it before counselling begins,” he added.