Common counselling for PG medical courses from this year

State Assembly adopts Bill

Karnataka will have a common counselling system for postgraduate medical and dental courses from this academic year unlike the present practice of multiple counselling by government, private and deemed universities. The State Assembly on Thursday adopted the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) (Amendment) Bill.

Piloting the Bill, Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash R. Patil said there will be common counselling by the government, COMEDK and deemed universities to prevent inconvenience to students. The Bill also seeks to earmark 30% of seats in unaided minorities’ colleges for students from Karnataka. In addition to this, consultations were being held with deemed universities to get 25% concessional seats for students of the State, he noted. Responding to a demand by members to reserve postgraduate medical seats for only students from Karnataka, Mr. Patil said the Supreme Court had earlier struck down such a move. However, he would hold consultations again with legal experts to see if it could be implemented.

The Assembly also adopted the Karnataka Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill which seeks to increase the rate of contribution of employees, employers and government to the labour welfare fund. The House also approved a Bill seeking to increase the retirement age of the V-C of Karnataka Sanskrit University from 65 to 67 years.