Karnataka Medical Education Department converted vacant Non-Resident Indian seats to ‘other’ category, that is management quota during the third round of counselling that began on Wednesday.
Merit PG-NEET students were outraged by the decision of Medical Education Department.
Out of 372 seats up for grabs under NRI quota, only 37 were filled resulting in department readily adding the unfilled seats to management quota. Candidates allege that it is a profitable deal for managements as the government increased fees for NRI seats by 15 percent.
V Manjula, Principal Secretary of Medical Education, said “We have converted the NRI seats into ‘other’ category without disturbing government and private quota seats. The 15% seats reserved for NRI and 10% kept aside for ‘others’ still remain a total 25%.”
Merit students assert that seats ought to have been made available for them under the government quota and further claiming that government prevails to reserve seats of 15 percent for NRIs even after knowing the demand is minimal.
“Only five NRI candidates had opted for PG dental. The remaining 124 seats reserved for NRI candidates therefore were converted to ‘other’ category. For PG medical, only 32 seats were filled. The remaining 211 seats which were vacant were converted to ‘other’ category,” Said Dr. S. Sachidananda, Director of Medical Education.
By Sowmya Sangam
