June 8: As many as 26 students out of the 73 students who got zero marks in all subjects were declared “qualified” in Eamcet this year.
Of them, 17 have qualified in the engineering stream and nine in the medical stream. However, the nine who have “qualified” in the medical stream, cannot take admission into medical colleges. This is because the Medical Council of India stipulates that candidates must get a minimum of 50 per cent marks in Eamcet and in BiPC subjects in Intermediate before being eligible for admissions into medical colleges. They can, however, take admissions into agriculture and veterinary colleges.
Meanwhile, those qualifying for the engineering stream can enter engineering colleges as no minimum marks are stipulated for the SC/ST students and the state has 2.85 lakh seats to offer. The 73 students who got zero marks had handed over blank papers to the invigilators. For the general category, the total marks in Eamcet are 160 and the qualifying mark is 25 per cent of the total.