The Medical Council of India (MCI) decision, that not to grant permission for the five medical colleges in the state, has put an end to the State Government's plan to compensate the losses in its government quota of MBBS seats, which it recently gave away to private colleges. With the result, CET (common entrance test) aspirants will have fewer government medical seats to opt from, when compared to last year's 147 seats.

Last week, the State Cabinet had climbed down the 60:40 formula and offered 50 per cent of medical and dental seats to private colleges to be filled under the management quota. The government pinned its hopes on starting five medical colleges to offset the losses in its quota of seats.

Of the total intake for medical courses in the state, 485 are in government colleges, 900 in minority colleges and 1,475 in private unaided non-minority colleges. The government's share in the minority colleges, which is 450 seats, will remain unchanged as 50:50 ratio was followed for admission to these colleges.

The government's share in unaided non minority medical colleges will come down by 147 seats from 885 last year which is 60 per cent to 738 seats, which is 50 per cent. The 147 seats, which students could have opted from the Common Entrance Test Cell by paying a fee of Rs 42, 000 per annum, would now cost Rs 3.70 lakh each.

According to Karnataka medical education minister Iqbal Ansari, the proposed colleges at Mandya, Hassan, and Belgaum had the infrastructure facility that would suffice for the first year MBBS students. He said," We want to improve the facilities in the future. The MCI decision against approving may be because of the lack of required infrastructure for the entire 5 year MBBS course."