The state government’s failure to complete the postgraduate dental seat allocation in time has put the careers of hundreds of students at stake. The Centre has rejected the state government’s plea to extend the date of admission and validate their admissions retrospectively.
After delaying the counselling process for more than a month, the state government, realising its mistake, wrote to the Union Health Ministry requesting an extension of the last date for admissions and approve admissions made after the deadline.
However, the Centre turned down the plea and ruled out any extension of the date. The Centre’s communication on December 21, accessed by DH read, “I am directed to refer to letter number MED95RGU2021 dated 26-11-21 received from the government of Karnataka and to inform that with the approval of the competent authority, it has been decided not to further extend the last date of admissions to Post Graduate Dental courses for the academic year 2021-22.”
The Dental Council of India (DCI) also issued a public notice which stated, “The executive committee of DCI decided to reiterate that the cut-off date for admissions to MDS courses for the academic session 2021-22 was extended up to November 20 and all dental colleges were directed to upload details of the students on the DCI website up to November 20 (12 midnight) and also decided that any request regarding extension of the last date for admission for the academic session 2021-22 or uploading such details of students on the DCI website shall not be entertained.”
While the Centre’s firm stand has left hundreds of students in the lurch, officials from the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) said they are only the executing authority and the counselling process was held as communicated by the medical education department.
When asked about the reason for the delay, officials from the medical education department said, “The process was delayed because the consensual agreement between the state government and dental colleges was delayed at the government level.”
According to the DCI notification, the last date to register admissions for the 2021-22 academic year was November 20. Sources said the NEET-MDS 2021 entrance was held on December 16, 2020.
The all-India counselling was conducted during September 2021. Instead of conducting the state counselling soon after the all-India counselling, the state government delayed the process and started it on December 5.
Shocked by the development, the students said, “We have been made scapegoats. The government has toyed with our future and it will be a waste of our academic year,” said a candidate. Principal Secretary, medical education department, Naveen Raj Singh, was not available for comments.
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