PG medical seat aspirants in a fix as private quota seats dip

Postgraduate medical seat aspirants who cleared PG-NEET 2021 have alleged discrepancies in the ongoing seat allotment and demanded the restoration of the earlier counselling schedule.

Candidates who surrendered the seats under the all-India quota because of the better options available through the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) said they are left with no seats now, due to the last-minute change in seat matrix.

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In a complaint to the director of medical education, they said: “As per the counselling schedule, we had got seats in all-India counselling and a better choice in KEA counselling. Many of us took KEA seats because we had better options in a branch of our choice in the city of our preference. So, we all have surrendered seats in all-India counselling. On January 30, KEA announced a change in the seat matrix and a notice was put up, saying earlier allotted seats stand cancelled. As of now, we are left with no seats.”

The candidates alleged manipulations and irregularities in the seat matrix.

“Prima facie, there were so many manipulations in the seat matrix and changes in the schedule to favour a few students. The KEA completed the first round of allotment on January 28 and two days after seat locking, we were unable to download the challan,” the candidates said.

According to students, the number of seats under the private quota has been reduced.

“The total number of private quota seats was 1,186 in the previous matrix and it is 1,146 now. What happened to the 40 seats,” questioned a seat aspirant.

As explained by the candidates, there were over 1,129 seats in the government quota last year and the earlier seat matrix this year had 926 seats. Now, the same has been reduced to 923.

“We demand proper inquiry into it because the seat matrix, which was intact till 6 pm, was changed at 6.40 pm and we suspect major irregularities. This is done purposefully to favour NRI and management quota candidates,” they said.

‘H-K quota caused dip’

When contacted, director of medical education Dr P G Girish said, “The seat allotment was withdrawn only because of the Hyderabad-Karnataka reservation issue at two colleges in that region. Apart from this, nothing has changed.”

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