Students allege lack of transparency in seat matrix, express unhappiness
Counselling for post-graduate seats in self-financing dental colleges was postponed on Tuesday after candidates alleged lack of transparency in the seat matrix.
The Directorate of Medical Education had called 601 non-service candidates and 26 service candidates for counselling. According to selection secretary G. Selvarajan, in the first round of counselling for 19 seats, 17 were filled.
On Tuesday, the remaining seats and five seats under the All India Quota were to be filled, apart from 109 seats surrendered by private dental colleges.
However, students surrounded the medical education officials alleging lack of transparency. A parent said: “They said only 109 seats were available whereas there should be more.”
Dentist B. Selvakumar, whose wife was participating in the counselling, said that as a topper in 2006, he had faced a similar situation. “There is need for transparency,” he said.
Students noted that under the government quota, the cost of education would be lower although there continue to be anomalies even there. A student said, “Annamalai University has been taken over by the government and though it has fixed a fee of Rs. 2.5 lakh, we paid Rs. 8 lakh per year for a BDS course.”
Similarly, P. Paul of Tiruchi, a parent, said his daughter had finished BDS in 2014 as a government quota student in a private dental college. “I paid Rs. 2.5 lakh per year as fee when the government fee was only Rs. 80,000. There was no stipend either.”
A disappointed M. Neelambari, who completed BDS in 2013, and is hoping to study orthodontics, said: “I wrote the State government’s entrance exam every year but with only four colleges offering the course and each of them having only three or four seats, I had to wait. This year, the new colleges have surrendered seats but the older colleges with good faculty have not. Under management quota, I must pay Rs. 8.5 to Rs. 9.5 lakh per year whereas a seat under the government quota would cost Rs. 2.5 lakh.”
‘No details’
Students say in deemed universities they would have to pay Rs. 12-18 lakh a year as fee and call for governmental pressure on private colleges to surrender 50% seats as mandated by the Dental Council of India. Dr. Selvarajan said, “Deemed universities have not yet given the details of seat availability.”
He added, “We are abiding by the Madras High Court judgement and the State government’s Act framed in 2007, which allows for consensual agreement on surrender of seats between the DME and minority institutions.”
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