Bangalore: Locking horns with private unaided college managements, Karnataka government on April 22 announced a seat sharing formula and new fee structure for medical, dental and engineering courses.

Under the new formula, the state Cabinet decided to retain 75 per cent of seats under its control leaving 25 per cent to the management, thus rejecting the latter's claim for 75 per cent seats.

On April 19, the private college managements offered only 25 per cent of seats to government as part of their formula and announced new fee structure ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3,00,000 for engineering, medical and dental courses.

The private managements have declared that if the government decision were in their favour, they would admit students selected through Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by government, failing which they would go ahead with admissions.

Briefing reporters on the Cabinet decisions, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs D B Chandregowda, Minister for Information, Kagodu Thimmappa and Minister for Higher Education Dr G Parameshwara said government had accepted the Cabinet Sub- Committee recommendations of retaining 75 per cent of seats in its fold and leave 25 per cent to managements.

The government in its new fee structure has retained the existing fees for seats coming under its quota, but enhanced it for students coming from outside Karnataka.

The private managements had been sticking to their guns following a Supreme Court verdict in 2002 that gave a free hand to them on admission and fee structure, subject to meeting criteria such as merit and social justice. Talks between government and managements to break the impasse had failed.

Gowda said the government would soon issue an order under the Prohibition of Capitation Fee Act 1997 to give effect to its new seat sharing formula and fee structure.

The decision of the government was in tune with the admission guidelines notified in the official gazette by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), he said.

In the event of the private college managements opposing the government order, it would take action in accordance with the law, Gowda said, but refused to elaborate.

Defending the new formula, Gowda said the managements have been given 25 per cent of seats, increasing their quota by ten per cent from the previous level and fee structure has also been enhanced.

Dwelling on the seat sharing formula, he said all the 450 medical seats in the four government colleges would be filled by the government on the basis of merit-cum- reservation.

In the private unaided medical and dental colleges, 50 per cent of the seats continued to come under the merit-cum-reservation quota, as was being followed earlier.

PTI