Bengaluru, May 16 (IANS) Karnataka Minister for Medical Education, Skill Development, and Livelihood, Sharanprakash R. Patil, on Saturday, announced that an additional 1,122 seats will be made available to the state, offering a golden opportunity for those aspiring to build a career in the medical field.

Addressing a press conference held at Vidhana Soudha on Saturday, the Minister stated that Karnataka is at the forefront of the country in the field of medical education.

The additional seats allocated to the state will benefit districts including Koppal, Gadag, Chamarajanagar, Karwar, Kaveri, and others.

For undergraduate seats, a central government grant of Rs 495 crore will be received. Similarly, a grant of ₹541 crore will be provided for postgraduate medical seats, Patil explained. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare gave its final approval on May 15. In total, the state will receive Rs 1,090 crore, he added.

Allocation of over 1,000 medical seats to a single state is a record achievement and stands as a testament to Karnataka’s accomplishments, said Patil.

Karnataka now offers abundant opportunities for those wishing to excel in the medical field, and students should make the best use of this, advised Sharanprakash Patil.

The recent NEET question paper leak is a grave injustice to the entire student community, and the Central Government has sabotaged the futures of thousands of students who dream of becoming doctors, criticised Sharanprakash R. Patil.

The Minister said Karnataka’s Common Entrance Test (CET) is a far superior model to NEET and should be adopted nationally. The state has urged the Central Government on multiple occasions to consider this, but those appeals have gone unheeded, he said.

Chaos surrounds NEET every single year. The Minister demanded that the Union Minister concerned must resign over this latest debacle, and that the investigation must be conducted under the direction of a court of law.

The Central Government’s haphazard conduct of NEET has completely eroded public trust. The Minister also expressed his lack of confidence in the CBI, which is currently probing the scandal, stating that a transparent investigation under its watch is unlikely.

This scandal appears to have been orchestrated to enable the sale of MBBS seats, and there are strong suspicions that powerful individuals are behind the entire affair, he added.

Seeing state BJP leaders defend the NEET question paper leak scandal makes it abundantly clear that they have no shame or sense of decency, the Minister said sharply.

Paper leaks are something the BJP has become notorious for. Under the previous BJP government, there was the PSI recruitment scandal — and now comes the NEET scandal. Misleading and exploiting the youth seems to be the BJP’s defining pursuit, said Sharanprakash Patil.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

–IANS

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