Addressing the issues that have cropped up at the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) in connection with NEET-PG 2021 Counselling, Dr B Karunakar Reddy, the Vice-Chancellor of KNRUHS had organised a press conference at the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) office in Koti, Hyderabad, on Friday, April 22, at 6 pm. Director of Medical Education (DME) K Ramesh Reddy and Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao had also addressed the media, along with Dr Karunakar at the conference.
He states that he has clearly discussed the two major problems and the future course of action planned regarding them. First, he spoke about the matter of supposedly blocked PG Medical seats. “Unless they have actually done so and the seat has been filled up by the management, only then can it be called as blocking,” he iterated. He said that any student or college cannot be accused outright unless proper evidence had been found.
“We have submitted all the documents to the police. The police is investigating the matter,” he further informed in a chat with Edexlive. However, to avoid situations of suspicion like this in the future, a solution was proposed at the press conference. The university officials have suggested that a common website be created where a list of candidates who have joined colleges across all the states be uploaded after every round of counselling. And the university said that this seemed the only viable solution because it was seen that even after the centre had taken a step against this and increased the exit fee from 5 to 20 lakh, blocking incidents still couldn’t be prevented in Karnataka.
Speaking about the larger issue that has been hanging about the university since March 31, regarding the students who had lost their medical seats, the Vice-Chancellor said that they had not followed the MCC’s (Medical Counselling Committee) Advisory, which advises the students who have secured a seat in the State Round not to participate in the All India Mop-Up Round. The students, however, claim that it was the university that encouraged them to do so. But the VC doesn’t agree with the students. He stated that the students had taken the decision according to their own will. “Why will the university encourage it? Neither will we encourage nor discourage. They had the option and they decided to exit,” he said.
He further stated that the students had not discussed their decision to forego their seats. “None have met me in that regard. They had the time and options, and they decided to explore. This happens every year that students decide to exit. Many of them join other colleges,” he said.
The students had also alleged that the university had been apathetic to their situation. With regard to this, Dr Karunakar said, “They didn’t come to the university to get relief.” However, as a solution to this problem and to help the condition of the junior doctors who have lost their seats and the eligibility to participate in further MCC counselling rounds, the VC said, “It was decided that the students will be made eligible for the next round. We will grant that. I have made it all clear.”
