Amid paper leak row, Karnataka to start seat allotment for courses sans NEET

Bengaluru: Karnataka has decided to go ahead with allotment of seats for engineering and other courses, delinking this process with the leak-hit National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medicine.

Counselling for engineering seats will begin after the Common Entrance Test (CET) results, which are likely to be declared next week. 

Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar announced the government’s decision at a Youth Congress protest rally against the NEET paper leak.

“Since 2023, counselling for medical and other courses has happened together. This time, we've decided not to wait for NEET [results]. Keeping the interests of students in mind, we'll go ahead with counselling for engineering and other courses,” Sudhakar said.

Karnataka used to hold counselling, or allotment of seats, for all courses together as students would have attempted both CET and NEET. Based on their ranks, students opt for the best seats, either engineering or medicine.

Sudhakar reiterated the Congress government’s demand for reverting to the pre-NEET system.

“In the earlier system, states could hold entrance tests. Results were declared after giving 50% weightage to marks scored in 2nd pre-university or Class 12,” Sudhakar said. “Under the old system, if something went wrong in one state, its impact was confined to that state without affecting students in the entire country,” he said, adding that the earlier process kept at bay the “menace” of coaching centres and reduced pressure on students.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said NEET questions paper leaks occurred in 2016, 2021, 2024 and now.

“Between 2004 and 2014, during the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh, national-level medical admissions were conducted through the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT). Not once was there a paper leak,” Siddaramaiah said.

Before NEET was introduced in 2016, Siddaramaiah said each state conducted its own CET. “Karnataka conducted one of the best CETs and selected students fairly for medical courses,” he said, adding that the Modi administration “destroyed” the federal structure by introducing NEET although education is on the Concurrent List of the Constitution.

Siddaramaiah demanded Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and adequate compensation to the families of students who died by suicide following the paper leak.

Siddaramaiah also also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “immediately cut short his foreign tour” and address pressing issues. “He must apologise to the nation for the NEET fiasco and dismiss the officials responsible,” he said.