Parents furious over COMEDK's exclusive round of seat allotment

Thousands of students, aspiring to get admission to undergraduate engineering courses, as well as their parents, have expressed shock over the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka’s (COMEDK) announcement of an exclusive round of seat allotment without prior notice.

Many of them have sent an email to the COMEDK authorities seeking justice as they cannot participate in the exclusive round of counselling announced late in the evening on Monday without any intimation.

They said thatmany returned the seats instead of freezing them as they were told that the exclusive round was meant for the benefit of students who have cleared the second PUC in supplementary examinations.

A parent, whose daughter had to choose the option to return her seat obtained in the third round of counselling, said that they had decided to do so as they were not aware that another round would be held.

“If we knew that there would be another round, we would not have returned the seat to take part in the next round. Those who freeze their seats were allowed to take part in the exclusive round,” he said.

Another parent said, “My daughter was allotted a seat in Medical Electronics in the third round. But she was looking for a seat in Biotechnology. As she did not want Medical Electronics, she rejected the seat. But she was not aware of the exclusive round while rejecting the seat.”

According to the information available from COMEDK, the exclusive round was decided in the last minute. Also, according to a notification issued by COMEDK, “The exclusive round is applicable to candidates who (have) cleared the supplementary board examination of the current year and whose document verification is approved, candidates who participated by filling choices and who have not been allotted a seat in any of the earlier rounds. Besides this, candidates who had opted for-accept and freeze in round 3, who were allotted a General Merit seat, are also eligible to participate in the counselling.”

A COMEDK official said that the exclusive round was being conducted in the interest of candidates who had cleared the supplementary examination so that they do not have to wait until next year.

“We have given enough opportunities for the candidates because the candidates, who did reject and withdraw seats, had affected the candidates above them in the rank list.”

Meanwhile, the COMEDK authorities have said that they sought extension of date for the counselling for 15 more days.

“As of now December 31 is the last date for admission and if we get an extension we will look into the matter,” an official said.