Withdraw minority status of 10 dental colleges, panel urges govt

The Assurance Committee of the Legislative Council has recommended that the State government withdraw the linguistic minority status accorded to 10 dental colleges for violating norms during admissions.

The committee headed by M C Nanaiah (JD-S) tabled its report in the House on Monday.

The committee has found that the colleges had violated the norms stipulated by National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) by failing to fill stipulated quota seats.

The committee has recommended that the State government write to the Dental Council of India (DCI) on the violations and also take legal action against the colleges.

The NCMEI norms stipulate that 66 per cent of the seats in a linguistic minority college should be filled by students from the same linguistic minority category.

All the colleges had violated the admission norm during 2012-13, the report stated.

In most of the colleges not a single student from minority category had been admitted during admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses, the report adds.

The colleges named by the committee are: Rajarajeshwari Dental College and Hospital; Oxford College of Dental Sciences; Vaidehi Institute of Dental Sciences and Research Centre; Al Badar Dental College and Hospital; Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences; Coorg Institute of Dental Sciences; Farukia Institute of Dental Sciences; Navodaya Dental College; Al Ameen Dental College and A J Institute of Dental Sciences.

The committee found that Srinivasa Education and Charitable Trust which runs the Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre has submitted fake documents to register itself as linguistic minority management.

Three directors of the trust had obtained fake caste certificate pertaining to Kodaga caste and later registered the trust as belonging to linguistic minority, the report states.