Karnataka: Revised medical seat allotment schedule impacts engineering courses

Bengaluru: The Medical Counselling Committee’s revised schedule for the second round of allotment of medical seats across the country is likely to impact the allotment of engineering seats in Karnataka.

In accordance with the guidelines laid down by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the Karnataka Examinations’ Authority (KEA) had come up with a schedule, according to which allotment of engineering seats, and admissions were to be completed by September 15. However, given that the Medical Counselling Committee has selected September 12 as the date for its second round of seat allotment, KEA was impelled to write to AICTE seeking an extension for the completion of allotment of engineering seats.

KEA officials confirmed that the Karnataka Minister for Higher Education wrote to AICTE on August 29 seeking an extension. “We are yet to receive a reply from AICTE,” said a senior official.

Date for paying fees extended

Meanwhile, many students have been unable to pay their fee for courses, including engineering and AYUSH, owing to technical glitches. Taking cognisance of the problem, KEA extended the deadline for paying the fee by one day; students now have till September 3 to pay the fee, while the last date for reporting to their respective college has also been extended to
September 4.  

KEA officials attributed the technical snags to the load on the server.

“To avoid seat blocking, we made it mandatory for students looking for engineering seats to pay Rs 10,000. Consequently, many of them tried to download challan for making this payment, which led to technical problems for a few hours. But the problem was set right by Monday afternoon,” an official said.