Special counselling on July 17

Medical education minister S A Ramdassaid on Wednesday that a special counselling will be held on July 17 for admission to 675 medical seats. He also announced an empowered committee to oversee the admission process. 

The single member monitoring committee will be headed by K Sudha Rao, former V-C of theKarnataka State Open University, who has powers to ensure that the private medical institutions are adhering to regulations. In case of complaints, students can approach the committee, he said. According to him, the government has got an additional 675 undergraduate medical seats following the increase of seats by the Medical Council of India ( MCI) and by way of surrendering seats by the private colleges. These seats will be allotted through the special counselling in Bangalore, he told reporters. The counselling will start at 7 am. 

The committee has been set up as per the provisions of an agreement entered by the government with Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association. Rao has powers to implement the fee structure and other regulations. This is for the first time such a panel is established, Ramdas told reporters. There have been lapses in admission during the past five years especially at minority institutions. The panel is set up to oversee the admission process, he explained. 

Admitting delay in admission process for PG in pharmacy, Ramdas attributed it to rise in PG seats. Now, there are 1,323 seats across 38 pharmacy colleges in the state. Of this, 644 are government seats for which the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences is preparing the seat matrix. Counselling will be held shortly, he said.