Panel recommends action against 10 linguistic minority colleges

BANGALORE: A legislature committee has recommended the state government to derecognize 'linguistic minority' status of 10 private dental colleges for denying admissions to linguistic minority students in under-graduate and post-graduate courses.
In its report submitted to the legislature on Monday, the assurances committee of the legislative council, headed by JD(S) floor leader MC Nanaiah, observed that the linguistic minority medical and dental colleges have denied admissions to students and violated the norms of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dental Council of India (DCI).
The committee has also recommended that the government send a report to MCI and DCI on the violations and seek appropriate action against these colleges.
Linguistic minority medical and dental colleges should give admissions to 66 % students from their respective linguistic groups, but they haven't done so. "Instead, they have sold these reserved seats to students from outside the state," the committee stated.
The committee has also recommended the higher education and medical education department to cancel the permission granted to these colleges to conduct their own tests and instead bring them under the uniform test system.
"The state government should bring transparency in admissions and prevent these colleges from denying admissions to poor and meritorious students belonging to linguistic minority groups," the committee said.
The violators
Rajarajeshwari Dental College; Oxford College of Dental Science; Vydehi Institute of Dental Science; Al- Badar Rural Dental College and Hospital, Gulbarga; Bengaluru Institute of Dental Science; Coorg Institute of Dental Science; Farooqia Dental College, Mysore; Navodaya Dental College, Raichur; Al-Ameen Dental College, Bijapur; and AJ Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangalore.
The committee said Saptagiri medical college fraudulently obtained Kodava linguistic minority status by fabricating documents.