Of the total 2,422 medical seats under the management/NRI quota in private medical colleges, a whopping 1,864 seats, about 77%, were not filled in the last three years, according to data placed before the Legislative Council on Monday.
In 2018, though 803 seats were available in management/NRI quota, 640 remained vacant while in 2019 of the total 782 seats available, 527 seats were not filled up. In 2020, of the 837 seats, 697 seats remained unfilled.
The data was in response to a question from BJP member Chidananda Gowda, who urged the Government to take over the remaining seats and distribute among the meritorious students instead of allowing it to go waste.
In response, the Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said that no medical seat in Karnataka under the Government quota goes waste. There are more than 10,000 seats in 67 medical colleges that are managed by government, private and deemed universities in the State, he said.
The Minister said, “The vacant seats remaining in private medical colleges are being filled up by the Government as per a Supreme Court direction in the merit ratio of 1:10. About 300 to 400 seats are being filled in this category.”
