Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda, said on Saturday that the MCI is expected to sanction additional MBBS seats in various medical colleges in Karnataka by June 30.
He also stated that the number of seats filled under the government quota in 2009-10 was 1871.
MCI’s grant for additional medical seats
The MCI visited the state and is expected to permit admission of more students in five colleges overall.
The seats will be divided as: 100 each in Government medical colleges in Raichur, Bidar and Shimoga, 50 seats in Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hubli, and 63 seats in S S Medical College Davanagere.
As the approval for medicals seats in these colleges is awaited, the total number of seats under government quota has reduced from 1,780 to 1,376.
Of these, 38 medical seats were allotted for physically challenged, Scheduled Caste rural category and Anglo Indian candidates, stated the MCI.
It further noted that due to non-availability of eligible candidates for any of these categories, the seats will be shifted to the general category.
The grant, which is expected in the second round of MCI inspection, will be for students of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)..
The schedule for the second round of counseling will be confirmed once the counseling for engineering seats is done.
Other regulations
The MCI Board of Governors has extended the date for consideration of granting the ‘Letter of Permission’ for new colleges and renewal of permission for colleges, from June 15 to July 15. The extension has been made under Section 10A of the MCI Act 1956.
The current Board has been assessing 87 recommendations by the former MCI concerning the renewal of permission/setting up of new colleges/recognition of institutions.
The MCI agreed to the Board’s proposal of extending the date for grant of permission for undergraduate courses for the academic session 2010-11, owing to the interest expressed by the Board.
However, the extension is valid only for the academic session 2010-11 in particular.
The Ministry though clarified that the last date for grant of permission for postgraduate courses in the board-specialty ended on March 31 and will not be extended.
The last date for grant of permission for postgraduate medical courses in super-specialty, though, continues to be July 15 for the academic year 2010-11 according to current regulations.