Karnataka: Seat-blocking scam hits UG admissions

BENGALURU: Seat-blocking scam, which was the bane of admissions to engineering and medical colleges, has now cast its shadow on undergraduate programmes in agricultural universities.
With the admission process set to pick up pace soon this academic year, several academicians have flagged largescale irregularities and incidents of seat blocking during walk-in admissions in farm universities for unfilled seats last year and sought for steps to prevent their recurrence this time round.
The academicians have demanded a high-level inquiry into the alleged scam, which they say deprives many meritorious students of seats in these universities. While they believe such violations may have been witnessed in all the six agricultural universities across Karnataka, an analysis of the walk-in process in University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS) alone revealed admission of at least 25 such students, including children of some serving faculty members, last year.
"If the number of allotments through violations in UAS, Bengaluru alone could be 25, the total number across all universities may cross 100 if their walk-in admissions are probed," said a senior faculty member of UAS in Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra (GKVK), Bengaluru. Admissions to various undergraduate programmes for farm and veterinary universities across Karnataka are conducted through the Common Entrance Test organised by Karnataka Examinations Authority and All-India Engineering Entrance Examination, conducted by Indian Council of Agriculture Research.
"Once the admission process gets over, the farm universities barring the veterinary university conducts walk-in admissions to fill up leftover vacant seats based on CET & AIEEE (now JEE Mains) ranking," said an official .
While admissions were smooth all these years, of late, the walk-in admission process has been marred by irregularities, especially during 2021-22.
"The official nexus in admissions helped many low-rank students bag seats in best colleges over better-ranked candidates in complete violation of the roster and waiting list. Students who secured CET ranks above 1,00,000 were given seats under GM category, while candidates below rank 25,000 were allocated seats under categories such as 2A, SC, 3A and agricultural quota in violation of the roster," officials explained.