KARACHI, Aug 23: The Sindh health department has made slight changes to the prospectus and application forms for admission to MBBS and BDS classes at medical institutions governed by it.

Efforts have been made to ensure clarity in admission rules, said an official in the health department, urging the students to fill in all columns in the application forms carefully and submit related documents certified by institutions concerned to avert any trouble in the final stages.

Last year, a number of candidates landed in trouble and fought for their admissions, as there was some misinterpretation of rules by the admission authorities. After the announcement of provisional merit list, authorities were found adamant not to allow admissions to some of the students, who, according to them, had failed to mention the correct option in the application forms.

This year the department has made changes on page-II of the application forms. In the options column, the statement “I hereby give my option for admission in the following medical institutions, including colleges outside the province for reciprocal—” has been replaced with “I hereby give my option for admission in the following medical institutions in Sindh and colleges outside the province (Punjab) for reciprocal/merit-cum-choice seats in order of preference:—”.

A senior teacher at a medical college said that the candidates must mention the name of the college of their first choice or the college where they would be admitted on merit and then they may write down the names of other colleges where they wanted to be admitted against reciprocal seats.

There is no further shift from the previous years as far as the set of application forms is concerned. However, surprisingly on page II of the form, the applicants or students have been asked to put in their signatures on an affidavit which is required to be submitted by the parent or guardian.

In the rules of admission on page 16, it has been added for the first time that “the selection board, shall not consider any candidate for admission if he is found involved in cheating or fraud at any stage of admission/selection. The addition has been made, perhaps in view of the problems faced by the department in cancelling the admission of over 30 students, who were found involved in using fraudulent means or entering in peculiar dealings with some staff of the entrance test conducting body.

In the case of candidates who would be found attempting to get admission on the basis of false/incorrect documents or information or against the rules of admissions, the rules said that the health department will have the right to take legal action against him as per law.

The clause “Transfer on disciplinary grounds” has been deleted this year. Under the clause, any student who was found indulging in any activities prejudicial to good order and sound academic atmosphere in the college could be transferred from one medical college to another on disciplinary grounds, said the last year medical college prospectus.

This year there is no cut in the seats for BDS classes, but as practised in previous years, a 10 per cent reduction in seats of MBBS classes has been made this year too. In all, 1,138 admissions would be made in five medical institutions in the province, out of which 887 are allocated to be filled on purely on merit basis.

The merit seats at Dow Medical College are 222, and at Sindh Medical College 151, which are meant for candidates domiciled at Karachi.

It is believed that in addition to 260 A-1 graders, another 100-120 A graders from the Board of Intermediate Education would be able to run for admission to two government-run medical colleges in the city.

The entrance test for admission would be held on Sept 15, under the aegis of Bahria University, Islamabad, while teaching for new admissions has been planned from Nov 1.