Puducherry: PG medical admissions stalemate continues to persist

Puducherry: The Lieutenant Governor, Ms Kiran Bedi, cautioned the self financing colleges that show cause notices would be served to them, if they failed to adhere to the fee structure fixed. However, managements seemed to have overlooked when they refused to admit students to the colleges claiming the declared fee structure as being unviable, threatening the very survival of the self financing institutions running Post Graduate courses. Thousands of students were seen stranded amidst the fee controversy.

The Lt. Governor who was seen camping at the Centralized Admission Committee(CENTAC) Office was witnessed trying to persuade children to take on government quota seats. However, she didn’t at the same time forget to add that the show cause notice would be served to managements who did not abide by the rules set up by the Committee in order to bring them around.

The last day of the counselling saw it take off at 10AM and continue till 1 PM. 26 were able to make their choices by 11.30 am. Of the 63 aspirants who showed up for the 71 available seats a mere 26 were able to make their choices by 11.30 am. The remaining 45 are to be surrendered to the ALL India Quota stated a CENTAC Official.

The Lt. Governor speaking of left over seats clarified saying that all the seats under the government quota that were due to local students should be filled with candidates from the Union Territory if left vacant. In case, there was still vacancy, these seats should be surrendered to the Government of India for reallocation to the government quota. As managements could not come to the forefront in this case , the seats could not be reallocated to the management quota.

Ms. Bedi revealed that she had informed the President, Medical Council of India and the Director-General, Health Services of the whole selection process and the list of candidates Ms. Bedi further stated that on the issue of fee, it would remain that decided by the fee committee appointed by the Supreme Court. The same would be the case with regards to MBBS admissions this year, she clarified.

However, despite the insistence of the governor on issues related to fee, the managements refused to budge from their stands of not taking in students on the fee fixed by the government.

On Wednesday when some students gathered outside colleges till late evening in an effort to get admissions, the administration was seen threatening take away of seats, if fee asked for by them was not paid.

The management of a private college maintained defiant stands even after assurances were made by the Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao.

The fee quoted by managements was Rs. 38 lakh for a seat. When the governor took a round of these colleges, the authorities agreed to admit . However, once she left, the managements refused admission to as many as 30 students till they paid the full fee asked for.

On the last day of counselling, the candidates selected through Centac were advised by Ms. Bedi to select the seats under government quota and remit the fees prescribed by the fee committee.

An Andhra Pradesh aspirant, who had selected in MS Orthopaedics during the counselling held on Tuesday and given the provisional allotment letter was shocked to find that there was no vacancy on Wednesday. “I had remitted ₹17 lakh for the course in a self-financing college and received the allotment letter. But the officials now claim that there was no vacancy,” he said.