Karnataka government is earnestly working to see that Karnataka Professional Education Institutions Regulation of Admission Fixation of Fee Act will be implemented from the academic year 2013-14. This would transform the MBBS seats allocation favouring the meritorious candidates.

The government will not duck down to any demands related to the admissions to medical colleges and the fixation of fee structure for the MBBS course which adheres to the Karnataka Professional Education Institutions  under Regulation of Admission Fixation of Fee Act stated Medical Education minister Sharanprakash Patil.

“In this regard, we have convinced the state cabinet on the importance of the  implementation of this Act,” Minister Patil stated at the sidelines of his visit to the KR Hospitals in Mysore here.

The move to enforce Regulation of Admission Fixation of Fee Act is to ensure total transparency in the in admission and allow more seats to the   meritorious students. The law will ensure around 50 per cent quota to students from different categories in private medical colleges, too, he said.

Once the law is enforced, there would be no possibility for the private medical colleges to offer seats to the government. In fact, the government  does not see any problem with this and its objective is to ensure that merit  supersedes in during an MBBS admission, said the medical education  minister.

The main intention of the state government is that medical education should be affordable and the Act would help to regulate the fee structure, he said adding that the state government has communicated to the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court to appoint a retired judge to the Fee Regulation Committee and the Admission Overseeing Committee. The committee would function independently.

In order to increase the number of seats, the state government has chalked out plans to open six new medical colleges at Chamrajanagar, Karwar Gulbarga, Koppal, Madikeri and Gadag and is awaiting nod from the Medical Council of India (MCI). The new six colleges would easily provide an additional 900 seats taking the total number of seats to 2100 from the 16 medical colleges which includes the six new ones.

With the intention to upgrade the existing infrastructure of the 10 medical colleges, an amount of Rs.180 crore had been sanctioned. The government was also looking to have one medical college in each of the 30 districts in the state. In the next five years, efforts were made in this direction said the medical education minister.