The resolution has given an added impetus to the agitation, which has thus far been confined to parents and a few academicians in the region. A member of the university's Management Council and dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr Ramdas Ambulgekar, told The Indian Express that the university has every right to assert its ideas in the scheme of any examination which serves as the qualifying test for courses run by it.

Ambulgekar, who had proposed the resolution, said: ``At present, the five medical colleges in Marathwada have a total intake capacity of 450 students in the first year MBBS course ie, we have already 84 seats less to our credit in proportion to our population. At a time when peoplehere are pressurising the government to fulfil this backlog of seats, the entrance examination has come as a rude shock as it puts a big question mark on whether Marathwada's students will retain the basic 450 seats for themselves,'' he explains.

Experts here feel that the government will try and defer the CET for the forthcoming academic year. ``Where in Marathwada do you have the facility to train students for the entrance examination? Whatever coaching is available so far is too expensive and well beyond the reach of the hundreds of rural students,'' says Vasant Kale, who has also vociferously opposed the CET.