Bangalore: An 18 year-old student allegedly committed suicide in Bangalore fearing that she may lose out in the merit category for a medical seat, for which her father blamed the ongoing confusion over admission for professional colleges in the State.

Police said today (Aug 9, 2004) that Prathiba, a student of BMS College was depressed about the reported change in merit list for the Common Entrance Test (CET) aspirants and that she would have to opt for a payment seat. Prathiba's father, Srinivas, an auto driver had lodged a complaint with the police that his daughter took the extreme step due to the ongoing confusion over CET admissions.

Her ranking was above 16,000 in the CET exam and she was hoping to get admission into a medical college in the State on merit.

Thousands of students are in a dilemma due to the unending tussle between managements and Government over the seat sharing and fee structure for private engineering, medical and dental colleges in the State.

The Supreme Court is to hear a petition by the consortium of private engineering and medical colleges tomorrow (Aug 10, 2004), which has challenged the 75:25 seat matrix fixed by the Government.

The State legislature last week passed a bill fixing 75 per cent of the total sanctioned seats for the Government and the rest for managements, much to the chagrin of the latter.

Nearly 40,000 Medical, Engineering and Dental seats are available in over 200 colleges across the State.