Southern States - Karnataka   

Regional PU education boards planned

By Our Staff Correspondent

Raichur Sept. 9. The Minister for Medical Education, A.B. Maalakaraddy, has said there is a proposal before the Government to constitute regional pre-university education boards to set right the regional imbalances in education, especially in handling admissions to medical colleges.

He told presspersons here today that the existing system of State-level selection of candidates to medical colleges denied opportunities to candidates from regions that were educationally backward.

Dr. Maalakaraddy said that prior to 1970, the admission of candidates to medical colleges was being done at the university level as the pre-university courses were conducted by the universities. But this practice was stopped with the formation of a separate board for the Pre-University Course. Though the standard of education at the pre-university level was the same throughout the State, many candidates from educationally backward districts were unable to compete with their counterparts from the more developed regions in the State-level Common Entrance Test for selection to medical colleges.

Now the Government planned to constitute regional boards for pre-university education to select candidates on a regional basis. The issue had come up for discussion during the recent legislature session. The Government also held a separate meeting with leaders of the Opposition parties to discuss the matter and all were agreeable to the proposal. The Government was expected to take a positive decision on constituting the boards shortly, he said.

Answering a question, he said the Government did not plan to establish new medical colleges. However, it was encouraging private institutions and organisations to establish medical colleges in all the district headquarters in the State which did not have a college.

He said only few districts — Raichur, Karwar, Bidar, Koppal, Haveri, and Bagalkot — did not have medical colleges. The Government had issued no objection certificates (NOC) to several institutions and organisations in the State which submitted proposals to establish medical colleges. Many of these proposals were pending with the Medical Council of India (MCI).

However, not many were keen on establishing medical colleges because of the drastic reduction in the management quota in admissions. According to the recent ruling of the Supreme Court, the management quota had been reduced to 15 per cent, with preference for non-resident Indians. Many institutions and organisations, which had been given NOC, were now not keen on pursuing the matter with the MCI. Only a few institutions such as the Navodaya Education Trust, Raichur, were pursuing the matter with the MCI, he said.

Later, Dr. Maalakaraddy inspected the functioning of the OPEC-assisted Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Hospital here which is being jointly managed by the Government and the Apollo Hospitals group.

N.S. Bose Raju, Manvi MLA and Chairman of the Hyderabad Karnataka Development Board, was present.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Expert summoned to join STF?
• JD(U), JD(S) to join protesters
• Drought: Centre urged to assist State
• Efforts on to get Chairman of KPCC OBC Cell removed
• CRA decision satisfactory: Shettar
• Regional PU education boards planned
• Pro-Kannada forum against water release
• Veerappan informers warned of stern action
• Malaysian offer on highway accepted

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu