BANGALORE: As the admission round counselling for medical and dental seats concluded at the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell here on Friday, banks, which had opened stalls outside the office of the Cell, geared up to extend more educational loans. With all MBBS seats in the concessionary fee category having being taken, students had to look for the costly seats under the management quota.

The bank stalls were busy. "The fees in private colleges, especially under the management quota, are extremely high, as a result of which more than 200 students approach us for loans a day," said Mukhtar Ahmad, an agent at the Corporation Bank stall.

For Dr. Hiremath, a medical practitioner from Gulbarga and parent of Praveen, 14,000th rank holder, the high fee structure for management seats was nothing but "murder of merit". He complained, "The system has worsened to such an extent that private colleges are now announcing packages for admission and fees ranging from Rs. 30 lakh to Rs. 40 lakh a year."

Students and parents wanted the Government to open more professional colleges. That was the only way out of the current mess.

Not many CET students were ready to queue up for the COMED-K seats. Among them was Balepeer, a seat aspirant from Government College, Gulbarga, who had secured the 10,000th rank in the CET. He had given up hope for a medical seat. "I will have to settle for a seat in a dental college as there are not enough seats for medicine in government colleges," he said.

Echoing Balepeer's decision was Mr. Albert from Hubli, the father of 7,000th rank-holder Michelle. He said his daughter had also decided against a medical seat, as the fees in private medical colleges were extremely high and unaffordable.

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