MED ADMISSIONS: AGENTS OUT TO MAKE A QUICK BUCK

‘Call me now for best deal on MBBS in Mumbai, ‘Call us for direct admission to MBBS college is Mumbai’. There are messages that parents have begun to receive after vacant seats in private colleges are coming back to the institutes.

While the Directorate of Medical Education (DMER) website shows that there are only 74 seats vacant in the 14 private medical colleges in the state, parents say that the figure is much higher.

“The colleges have not given the actual figure to the DMER,” said a parent. The highest vacancy of 36 is at Prakash Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Islampur, Sangli.

“Since the allocation list for government colleges was published after private lists were put out and there will be movement to these government colleges from private, what about the seats that fall vacant after this list?” she asked.

Parents say they have been receiving messages from agents who promise them a seat on payment of Rs 60 to Rs 75 lakh, ‘depending on which private college they seek’.

“The agents are telling us this is ‘donation’ and that they will take us to the trustee of the college in whose hands we can give the money,” she said.

There seem to be other ways in which colleges are making money. Some colleges are charging anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 3000 for ‘admission forms’.

Even after a candidate has been allotted a private college as per merit, when they approach the college, colleges demand they fill this admission form and only then they will be admitted.

A parent said, “What is the point of a single-window centralised process for admission? Was this not done so that we don’t have to go to each college and pay application fees? But colleges are anyway making us pay, either way before or after admission.”

Seats in private medical colleges which were vacant after the admission rounds held by state this time only two were held, went back to institutes on Monday. This was because of a September 26 deadline set by the Supreme Court to return vacant seats to management. This year though, parents expected the process to be extended as litigation had stalled admission process for weeks.