Chaos at KEA: Students who got seats in top colleges seek cancellation to participate in 3rd round of counselling

Despite allowing online cancellation of engineering and other professional courses seats, there was chaos on Thursday as hundreds of students and parents gathered at the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) office seeking seat cancellation.

The KEA allowed only an online cancellation option for those allotted engineering seats in the 2nd round of seat allotment and wished to go out of the counselling window.

To prevent seat blocking, KEA has made admission compulsory for candidates who got seats in the 2nd round of seat allotment and select Choice-1. Candidates who do not select Choice-1 but wish to participate in the third round must first cancel the seat allotted to them in the second round by paying a ₹5,000 penalty. They can then log in, pay the registration fee afresh and participate in the third round.

Some students and parents objected to paying penalty for the seat cancellation.

“We were expecting very few students as it was the 2nd round and admission was mandatory. The reason we asked them to appear personally to cancel seats was to prevent seat blocking. However, it is very surprising that hundreds of students and parents gathered here. Students who got seats in top colleges also came for cancellation,” said a KEA official.

The KEA has now extended the deadline for candidates to cancel seats allotted in the 2nd round of CET counselling for engineering and other courses to August 29 and the last date for reporting for colleges till August 31. Similarly, the deadline for entering choices for admission, earlier set for August 28, has also been extended to August 29.

“Since candidates were earlier required to be physically present at the KEA office to cancel their seats, a large number of students arrived with their parents on Thursday. The process has now been made available online. Candidates can log in to the portal and cancel their seats by 3 p.m. on August 29,” said Prasanna. H., Executive Director of KEA.

“Candidates who select Choice-1 must take admission to the seat allotted to them. However, those who wish to try for an upgrade to a better seat can also participate in the third-round seat allotment by logging into the portal. Some candidates who had entered options for medical and dental courses were allotted engineering and other CET seats in the 2nd round. If they do not want those seats, they can select Choice-4. Even after doing so, they can continue to participate in the 2nd round allotment for medical courses,” he clarified.

The KEA on Thursday released the second provisional result of the first round of medical and dental course admissions.

All 11,875 medical seats and 2,684 dental seats were allotted in the first round itself. A total of 478 candidates who had secured seats through the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) or in other States cancelled their KEA-allotted seats. These vacant seats were included in the fresh allotment, Mr. Prasanna said.