the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti (PNS) has cancelled the admissions of over 250 medical and dental students, who secured seats through a faulty process, on Friday. The students had secured admissions after the second round of centralised admissions last year which the PNS said was not conducted according to proper procedure.
Three committees headed by different deans were appointed by the government to look into the admission process. On the basis of a report submitted by these committees, colleges were sent notices and each college was asked to give an explanation. Around 250 admissions were disapproved by the PNS after receiving replies from the colleges as the process was not fairly conducted and it lacked transparency.
“We found in many cases that students who had scored less marks had secured admission, while students with more marks, who had applied to the same college, didn’t get a seatt. Many malpractices were observed in the admission process,’’ said PE Gaikwad, office secretary of the PNS.
He added that the colleges and government will decide whether a fresh round of admissions will be conducted to decide the fate of the students.The Forum for Fairness in Education had filed petitions in the Bombay high court and with the Human Rights Commission demanding the government to look into the admission process. Jayant Jain, president of the Forum said, “The number of faulty admissions must be close to 700 to 800. The PNS will find more such illegal admissions if it investigates further.’’ He added that the government should conduct the third and fourth round of admissions again and meritorious students, who underwent severe stress, must be compensated. Medical aspirants who had complained against the process were overjoyed to hear the news. “I am happy with the decision. Due to some goof-ups by a college in Satara, I couldn’t secure a seat in another college in Solapur,” said a student who scored 160/200 marks.
