BPharma aspirants in a fix as seat matrix held up due to court case

Students who want to pursue BPharma are worried as the seat matrix for colleges offering the course is not yet available.

Counselling for the course is conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) through the Common Entrance Test (CET). Though the second round of allotment is already under way for other professional courses like engineering, BSc (Agriculture) and veterinary sciences, B-Pharma seats in private colleges have not been included in the process.

The delay is because private college managements have gone to the high court over the issue of seat-sharing. Earlier, colleges were supposed to give 20% of their seats to the government to be allotted to students at a concessional fee. This year, the government asked colleges to share 50% of their seats. Objecting to this, college managements took the matter to the court, where the case is pending.

As a result, B-Pharma seats were kept out of the first round of counselling. In the second round, only 50 seats in government pharmacy colleges were available for students to opt from.

BPharma and DPharmacourses come under the purview of the Drugs Control Department. Drugs controller Bhagoji T Khanapure said the seat matrix was ready but since the matter is pending in the court, counselling cannot be held.

The fee for the course in government colleges is fixed at Rs 14,030 and for government-quota seats, the fee is Rs 21,430. As the counselling is getting delayed, parents and students allege that private colleges are giving away their management quota seats for Rs 4 to Rs 5 lakh.