Mass protest for Domicile right in Medical admissions at Karnataka

Bengaluru: A mass protest was staged outside the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) recently by thousands of graduate medical seat aspirants condemning the opportunity being given to non-Karnataka NEET qualifiers to register for seats in the state.

"When there are 15 per cent seats reserved under the all-India quota, why are the authorities allowing them to register in general along with state students?" questioned the candidates.

5,000 candidates and parents were present during the protest. Some of them were taken into police custody when they tried to force themselves into the KEA premises. The blocking of road by the protestors led to traffic congestion in and around Malleshwaram and Sankey Road for some time.

KEA officials on their part clarified they were just following procedure, as per the directive of the state Medical Education Department and that were not in a position to change anything.

"If we receive orders from the medical education department, we will exclude non-Karnataka students registration," a KEA official told TNIE.

College managements have agreed to the authority's decision to increase the institutional quota of seats from 30% to 50%.