596 seats remained vacant after the second round of medical counseling this year

Of the medical seats available, seven are under government quota, 135 under private quota, 453 under management quota, and one under Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota. | Photo Credit: File photo

After the second round of seat allotment, 596 medical seats remain vacant this year, due to various reasons including high fees. This includes seats that were canceled due to seat allocations being rejected by students. In previous years, only between 100 and 150 seats would be left unfilled after the second round allocation.

Of the existing seats, seven are under government quota, 135 under private quota, 453 under management quota, and one under Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota.

Financial structure

This year, the government has allocated R65,100 for seats in government colleges. For Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESC) colleges, this amount is ₹1,10,100. For government quota seats in private colleges, fees range from R1,54,321 to R6,09,834. The fee for private quota seats in private colleges ranges from ₹8,11,285 to ₹25,15,750. Fees range from R26,62,700 to R45,15,750 for administrative and NRI quota seats per annum.

Tarun Kumar from Bengaluru, who was seeking a doctorate seat, said, “During the second round of seat allotment, I was expecting to get a government quota seat in another private college. But I got a private quota seat. My family can’t afford it so I gave up my seat at KEA.”

Praveen Chandra, a medical aspirant of the Bengaluru government, raised the alarm on the issue of facilities. “I wanted to get a seat in a government college with good facilities. However, the college where I got a seat did not have facilities for clinical training. Therefore, I canceled the seats in the second round and decided to participate in the mop-up round.”

The Mop-up cycle begins

Now, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) is in the process of allotting these 596 seats in the exchange round of UGNEET-2024. Candidates who are eligible and interested in getting these seats have to pay the security deposit of medical course fee in advance. It is ₹1 lakh for general category students and ₹50,000 for SC/ST candidates.

To prevent the blocking of seats and other mishaps in the mop-up round, KEA has made a warning deposit mandatory. “The payment option will be available online or through downloadable challan from October 5 to October 8. Candidates can then select their options between October 7 and October 14,” said Prasanna H., Executive Director of KEA .

“If a candidate is given a medical seat in the mop-up round, the security deposit will be adjusted accordingly. However, if the candidate fails to get admission approval or decides to cancel the seat, or if he does not report to the assigned college, the deposit will be forfeited. Those candidates will also be fined according to the rules and will be disqualified from participating in any health counselling, including All India Counselling, for the next year,” he warned.

He further said that candidates who have been allotted dental seats through KEA process of UGNEET 2024 but chose to participate in the medical seat collection round, will not be eligible to choose dental seats later. “It is the same as the law of AYUSH courses,” he said.