MUHS invites fresh applications for B Pharm

Nashik August 3: Waiving its own eligibility criteria, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences here has invited applications for ad...

Nashik August 3: Waiving its own eligibility criteria, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences here has invited applications for admission to the Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences B Pharm course for seats which will remain vacant after the first round of admission.

Anticipating a substantial number of vacant seats after the first round of admission is complete on August 7, the university says applicants for the second round need not have taken the Secondary School Certificate SSC and Higher Secondary Certificate HSC examinations in Maharashtra as earlier stipulated. Neither should they have taken the recently-introduced Common Entrance Test CET.

Applications have now been invited from students who have taken the HSC Science exam from outside Maharashtra, those from Maharashtra who did not take the CET on May 23, children of citizens displaced from Jammu and Kashmir since 1990 due to terrorist activities and from children of IAS, IPS, IFS, paramilitary and army officers transferred to Jammu and Kashmir to combat terrorist activities.

Students have been asked to collect the application form by August 20 and submit it before August 21 at the K M Kundnani College of Pharmacy, Worli, Mumbai.

In doing so, the university has violated the provisions of the Maharashtra Health University Act, 1998, which stipulates that applicants for admission to medical courses should have passed both the SSC and HSC examinations from schools/colleges in Maharashtra and that they had to take the CET as well.

University Vice-Chancellor Dr Dayanand Dongaonkar told The Indian Express that the university had invited fresh applications as the seats in the first year B Pharm course have not been filled to capacity. Explaining that it is a tradition in the state to offer vacant seats to outsiders, he claimed there would be no legal hurdles involved.

Pointing out that there are 46 pharmacy colleges with 2,200 seats in the state, he said seats would be offered to outsiders only after students who had qualified under the CET had exercised their options.

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The university had started admissions to various medical courses, including B Pharm, on July 11. As on August 2, the number of seats available for the B Pharm course was 153 7 free and 146 payment in the open category and 840 414 free and 426 payment in the reserved category.

He pointing out that the university had the authority to convert reserved seats to open category seats if adequate students from the reserved category were not available. Asked why fresh applications had been invited for the B Pharm course only, he explained that till last year, admissions to this course were conducted by the state government8217;s Directorate of Technical Education. For seats falling vacant in other medical disciplines, the colleges/institutions concerned used to be asked to fill vacant seats on their own. He did not specify the university8217;s policy on vacant seats in other faculties.

Former minister for health and Pro-Cice Chancellor of the university, Dr Daulatrao Aher told The Indian Express that admitting students from outside Maharashtra would not necessitate any amendment to the MUHS Act. He, however, said a policy decision would have to be taken. He added that the procedure being adopted would not lead to any litigation as the university is offering only left-over seats to students outside Maharashtra.