Medical College managements bypass ASC directive

It appears that the Kerala Private Medical College Managements Association (KPMCMA) is leaving no stone unturned to get around the Admission Supervisory Committee’s (ASC) directive that admission to privilege/community seats within the management quota should be made only from the rank list prepared by it.

The eight medical colleges under the KPMCMA have already admitted students to the 135 privilege/community seats from ranklists of various entrance examinations, including the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test.However, Justice J M James, who heads the ASC, has categorically said admission of students to privilege seats from lists other than that of the ASC would be invalid. That means the KPMCMA has to cancel the admission given to candidates from the NEET list.

Sources said KPMCMA office-bearers met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Health Minister V S Sivakumar in Thiruvananthapuram the other day, urging to ease the regulations imposed by the James committee for admission to privilege seats. It is reliably learnt that the Chief Minister had enquired about the matter to Justice James over the phone in the presence of KPMCMA office-bearers. KPMCMA secretary V Anilkumar said: “We have completed admission to majority of the privilege seats based on the eligibility of the candidates. As per the KPMCMA’s discretion, we have picked qualified candidates from the NEET list as well.”

Of the 35 per cent management quota seats at colleges under the KPMCMA, admission to 20 per cent seats should be on merit basis, while the remaining 15 per cent seats are considered privilege quota seats. According to the ASC, managements can follow ‘pick and choose’ method, but the candidates should have scored at least 50 per cent marks in the entrance exam conducted by the committee. ASC sources said it would act against the invalid admissions once the process gets completed and the list published by the KPMCMA