Eamcet to stay

• Govt welcomes SC order
• Pvt colleges mull conducting their own test

The quashing of NEET notification by the Supreme Court provided big relief to almost all including the government, private medical colleges, students etc. All of them welcomed the verdict and said it gave them enough reason to rejoice. Minister for Medical Education, Kondru Murali said the verdict has come on expected lines. "From the beginning, we have been arguing that an all India test, based on CBSE syllabus would be against the interests of students from the state. Though we gave our willingness to join the NEET from 2014 on the plea by Union government, we are reluctant to join the mainstream as it would take away our constitutional right" he told media at Assembly premises on Thursday. "The government has been strengthening the medical education by establishing several new colleges and two more would be coming up next year at Nellore and Karimnagar. The number of seats has also gone up" he added. As the Supreme Court dismissed the NEET idea, the present system of EAMCET for admissions into medical colleges would continue without any hitch, according to a top official of the Department of Medical Education. But the private colleges appear to have a different mindset. They are mulling with the idea of conducting their own medical entrance examination as has been doing by several institutions in some states. "The Supreme Court has given us permission to do so 12 years back but we banked on the state for the exam. In fact, admission fee structure and administration has been our basic right. We will see if a consortium can be formed to conduct our own test" Ganni Bhaskara Rao, General Secretary of Private Medical College Managements Association, told The Hans India. Rejecting the contention that own exam by colleges would open up gates for selling of seats and erosion of standards, he said- "We cannot collect fee for MBBS course on par with LKG student. We built colleges by investing crores of rupees an the interest amount alone accrues to Rs 48 crores. With regard to standards of education, MCI is already there to monitor" Welcoming the judgment, Bhaskara Rao said it would help the rural students a lot. "If NEET is enforced, it would mar the chances in a big way as it was a national test. It would take away our constitutional rights as well. We are not prepared to give 15 percent of our seats to the national pool- as prescribed in the NEET format" he averred. Two student bodies- SFI and AISF have also welcomed the Supreme Court order. "Education is in the concurrent list. The Union government tried to usurp states' powers through NEET. SC Verdict is a slap on the union government" Noor Mohammed and Pagadala Lakshmaiah of SFI remarked. "The ruling will help students of states where CBSE syllabus is not being followed. If the Union Governemnt wants to implement the NEET, it should first bring about CBSE syllabus in all states" AISF said in a media release.