31 surrender medical seats to join Engineering

PUDUCHERRY: The four days of counselling under CENTAC has thrown up a few surprises, one of them being the preference for engineering, as against the much fancied medical. Of course, the high costs of medical studies have also contributed to the shift. A total of 31 students have surrendered their MBBS seats and opted for engineering during the four days of counselling by CENTAC till Saturday. Except one student from the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, a government-funded college, the remaining students were from self-financing medical colleges. The high fees charged by the self-financing medical colleges especially deemed medical universities to the tune of Rs 5 lakh annually and Rs 3.5 lakh by medical colleges affiliated to the Pondicherry University, have made students from poor and middle class families to shun medical studies. Though government has promised to reimburse the fee for all CENTAC-sponsored students, the reimbursement is only for the tuition fees, which constitutes around 60 per cent of the total fees. The burden of the remaining amount falls on the shoulders of the students - a burden that has to be sustained for five years.Besides, there is no guarantee of fee reimbursement by the government as the government order modifying the earlier order enabling all CENTAC-sponsored students to be eligible for reimbursement is yet to be issued.Regarding engineering, 1,444 students have been given the admission slips for B Tech till today. Out of the total 2,808 seats, 1,364 seats remain vacant. In Pondicherry Engineering College, 336 seats have been filled out of the 382 seats.