K’taka govt to waive penalty on changing to medical course this year

Bengaluru: Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan on Friday said he has instructed the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) not to levy penalty on students, who had held their engineering seats or have already got admitted into an engineering course, now seeking admission into medical courses He said, this provision for students will be applicable only for the current academic year.

”There used to be simultaneous allotments for Engineering and Medical courses in previous years. But in the current year, there was a delay in allotment of seats for medical courses due to a petition filed in the court with regard to the NEET examination, and this led to uncertainty,” Narayan said.

”Those students who had got admitted to engineering or held engineering seats, but now have been allotted medical seats can get admitted to medical courses. For this, fine will not be imposed,” he was quoted as saying by his office in a release.

”In previous years, for such students a penalty of five times the fee used to be imposed. But this year, it was earlier decided to collect one year’s fee as a penalty. However, now, this too stands cancelled,” he added.