Domicile Preference to Karnataka students for PG medical and dental seats

Bengaluru: Medical aspirants enjoying domicile status in Karnataka are going to see better days with 64% of the total 2,281 post graduate medical seats and 55.54% of the 929 postgraduate dental seats being reserved for them.

With the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Amendment Act, 2017 being implemented by the state government, it has become mandatory that 30% of the seats under institutional quota go the Karnataka student's way. This has lead to an increase in the seat numbers for domicile students, in both private and deemed universities.

An additional 363 medical seats and 173 dental seats from private colleges and deemed universities are now available for Karnataka students. This is in addition to the 1,096 government quota medical and 343 dental seats available for the State students.

All the seats are to be allotted through centralized counselling done by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA),which is already on for PG seats for the academic year 2017-2018 .

At the same time the institutional quota seats will get no concession. Students applying under this quota will have to pay in accordance with the understanding reached between the government and private colleges and that fixed by the deemed universities on their own.

Minister for Medical Education,Sharan Prakash Patil, on Wednesday while addressing the press stated, that this clause was brought into the Act with the coming on of NEET, which got implemented for medical and dental seats for the 2016-2017 admissions.

“We did not want students from our State to be at a disadvantage,” the Minister said. He also stated that, if the number of Karnataka students is less, then other students could be incorporated for the institutional quota seats.

Postgraduate seat aspirants have welcomed the move and feel it would help them bag seats in medical colleges in the State.

“With NEET, the seats in medical and dental colleges in the State are open to students across the country, so this reservation will help in ensuring the interests of students from the State,” said a PG aspirant to the Hindu.