Karnataka - Bangalore

Guidelines for counselling

B.S. Ramesh

Venkataraman panel suggests setting up of a committee

BANGALORE: The Justice S. Venkataraman Committee for Overseeing Admission to private professional colleges has come out with guidelines for conducting centralised counselling for students seeking admission to professional courses.

The committee has come out with several criteria for achieving the objective of a student- friendly, transparent and also merit-based system. It has suggested the setting up of a committee for conducting counselling, allotting seats and effecting admissions. This committee is expected to have five members, including a chairman, and at least two senior professors.

The chairman shall be responsible for fixing the venue and timetable, conducting the counselling process in a transparent manner, admitting candidates after collecting fee, maintaining an orderly atmosphere around the venue and creating a grievance redressal mechanism, it has said.

The committee shall prepare a seat matrix for each professional college specifying the number of seats. The allocation of seats should be done in a fair manner and proportionate to the prescribed reservation.

Reservation

For reservation under Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes or minority categories, only those as notified by the State Government will be considered. Candidates from outside the State shall not be considered, it has said.

A list of candidates claiming reservation under these categories on the basis of the declaration given by them shall be prepared. In case of any discrepancy in the information furnished in this regard, the matter shall be referred to a higher authority.

Applications should be called for from eligible candidates belonging to the reserved/Other Backward Classes/minority categories who have applied for the State CET for admissions to fill vacancies that have not been filled by candidates belonging to those categories from the merit list of the CET.

The venue should have at least one large hall and additional space for accommodating large crowds as well as the diverse activities involved during counselling. Easy and convenient accessibility, adequate space for parking of vehicles, supply of drinking water, electricity and clean toilet facilities should be provided.

The committee has said that the venue and timetable shall be given wide publicity through the Internet and newspapers. It says the date of counselling should be fixed at least a week before the first round of counselling conducted by the CET.

The registration of candidates shall be the first step. All details relating to the candidate (identity number, special category, if any, and rank) should be looked into.

Real time display

Electronic real time display of gross available seat matrix seats taken up during counselling and the balance seats should be made available on wide screens at two or more locations.

At the end of every six hours of counselling, a bulletin indicating the availability of seats and branches thereof shall be issued at a nominal cost.

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