Mangaluru: A statewide campaign to safeguard the interests of all merit students from Karnataka, to resurrect social justice that has being trampled under privatisation, to control the unbridled rise of cost of medical education, to save the standards of medical education and to urge the immediate implementation of the Supreme Court order on centralised counselling by the states, has been planned by the Young Doctors Wing of Indian Medical Association.
Addressing a press meet here on Thursday, March 2, Secretary of Doctors against Corruption (DAC) campaign Dr. Vrishanka Aithal spelt out the campaign plans and listed the demands.
Karnataka being one of the first states to start the Common Entrance Test (CET) in 1984, 75 percent of seats under government quota are in private medical colleges. But the government has failed such colleges and deemed universities from conducting their their own entrance examinations, Dr. Vrishanka said.
The share of seats offered under the government quota has steadily dwindled, depriving opportunity to the deserving students with merit and has also marred social justice, she added.
She accused the private colleges of subverting the intent of single CET examination by holding their own counselling for admissions, albeit based on the NEET results.
“Taking note of the anomaly, a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court on September 22, 2016 ordered that all the admissions for all medical seats under NEET must be done only through centralised counselling conducted by the state government and cancelled the counselling held by private colleges. Also, in another judgement dated September 28, 2016, the Supreme Court ordered that centralised counselling by the state government must be held for the medical college seats under the deemed universities as well,” Dr. Vrishanka claimed.
“The states of Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra have already issued notification for centralised, single-window counselling for all the seats in medical colleges managed by the government as well as private/deemed universities and Kerala and many other states are in the process of doing so”, she stated.
Unfortunately, in Karnataka the counselling for admissions after UG NEET was held separately by the private colleges and many students with merit could not get admissions, she said.
“After the announcements of the result of PG NEET, the Karnataka Examination Authority has published an instruction manual on its website regarding document verification. Without wide publicity and giving
adequate time, the KEA seems to be in a hurry to complete this process,” Dr. Vrishanka said, questioning the motive of KEA.
Doctors Against Corruption Campaign under the Indian Medical Association and Young Doctors Wing was formed to set the anomalies right, she explained.
A signature campaign in all the medical colleges of Karnataka was conducted where more than 5,000 signatures were collected. Later a memorandum was submitted to the chief minister and also to the ministers of health and family welfare and medical education through IMA,” she claimed.
Listing out the six major demands of the Association, Dr. Vrishanka Aithal said, “We have clear cut demands that the process of document verification at the KEA must be publicised well and the dates must be extended adequately to facilitate the participation of all the eligible aspirants.
The demands include:
All the seats for postgraduate education, offering MD/MS/diploma/MDS and also MBBS/BDS in all the government, private and deemed university-affliated medical and dental colleges of Karnataka must be allotted on the basis of the UG/PG NEET starting in the year 2017 itself, through only a centralised, transparent, single window counselling held by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) under the observation of the government of Karnataka. The eligibility to seek admission in the government quota for students from outside the state of Karnataka, but who have studied MBBS/BDS in Karnataka, must be immediately withdrawn. There must be parity in tuition fees and hostel fees, as well as stipend, for all the students admitted under the government quota in the government, as well as private and deemed university-affiliated medical and dental colleges. There should not be any hidden fees.
“If our demands are not met, we will stage a protest demonstration at the Karnataka Examination Authority in Bengaluru on March 4, the first day of the document verification for medical postgraduate admissions. This will be a statewide protest, but in Mangalore we will hold a silent protest by wearing black ribbons,” Aithal said.
“We also demand social justice to all the students of Karnataka. KEA needs to answer why it is hurrying the process of verification of documents,” Dr Vrishanka Aithal said seeking parity on a lot of critical issues which are affecting student fraternity and raising questions on the very integrity of their noble profession.
Dr Abhishek hoped the campaign against Corruption will make healthcare affordable in the future as the healthcare system is directly related to the common man.
They were of the opinion that “Once a student finishes with NEET, they should undergo centralised counselling so that every merit student who deserves a seat gets it”
Expressing difficulties faced in the KEA registration process and payment system through only three branches of State bank of Mysore, the young doctors, during the press meet, demanded a total overhaul in the process to make it transparent.
