Bangalore: With the onus of admission to private professional colleges in the State shifting mostly to the Under-Graduate Entrance Test (UGET-2006) conducted by the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K), all eyes are on the test.

The process got off to a smooth start with the entrance examination being conducted at various centres across the State on Sunday.

Admission tickets were issued to 69,179 candidates and 15,310 appeared for test in physics/chemistry/biology combination, 39,223 for physics/chemistry/mathematics and 14,646 for PCMB. There were 29,956 aspirants for MBBS/BDS seats and 53,869 for engineering courses.

In Bangalore, 87 per cent attendance was reported for the morning session wherein students wrote the combined physics and chemistry paper, while 87 per cent students attended the biology session and 90 per cent wrote the mathematics test, S. Kumar, executive secretary, COMED-K, told presspersons on Sunday.

The UGET was conducted in 70 centres in Bangalore and in 43 centres in 13 other cities in the State.

The attendance in other cities was around 85 per cent with some students not appearing for the biology paper, he said.

Two cases of impersonation were detected in Bangalore. One candidate from Chandigarh had used an impostor to write his examination at the M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, while another person was impersonating in place of a candidate from Patna at the BHS First Grade College.

He ran away from the centre, COMED-K officials said.

The biometric evaluation system for identification of candidates helped in bringing down the number of malpractices, which were 132 last year, Dr. Kumar said.

The examination was conducted according to the recommendations of the Justice Venkataramana Committee for overseeing professional college admissions in the State, he said.

On conducting the examination in centres outside Karnataka, Dr. Kumar said COMED-K wanted to do it for candidates from other States, but the committee did not allow it. COMED-K had faced problems such as someone hacking into its server but things were sorted out on time. Because of the problem, many candidates received hall tickets giving wrong time for the biology paper.

On seats for Karnataka candidates, he said that according to the provisions of the Central Act on admissions, 50 per cent of the seats were reserved for SC/ST/OBC candidates, while 15 per cent were reserved for NRIs. So not many seats would be left for State candidates, he said. Amissions would be made solely on the basis of merit.

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