‘20 per cent rise in applicants to Vet courses’

Congratulating the students on the second day of veterinary counselling held here, the Minister said that the veterinary courses are in demand as the job opportunities are better when compared to other streams.

The animal husbandry sector is thriving in Tamil Nadu due to the string foundation laid by the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who was instrumental in sanctioning and commissioning veterinary colleges in Tirunelveli and Orathanadu adding to the number of veterinary seats in 2013. In the past eight years the state has spent close to Rs 130 crores on the veterinary academics’ front, the Minister said.

According to Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University sources, the job opportunities for the veterinary graduates are better than the engineering streams. “For a total of 268 seats, 463 students were shortlisted and called for counselling and the waiting list with quality students has been steadily increasing. Further there is a steady increase of students getting admitted into veterinary medicine from rural background,” said a professor attached to Tanuvas.

Veterinary degrees are cost effective and student to earn the graduation spends around Rs 1 lakh and starts earning during the final year as house surgeon. A stipend of Rs 7,500 is given to house surgeons and there are adequate job opportunities from the state government. With Namakkal and delta region supporting good livestock population, job opportunities in the private sectors are also attractive, the professor said adding that the placement cell in Madras Veterinary College has been successful for the past 8 years.

The counselling started with the Tanuvas sending call letters to 18,438 candidates for BVSc and B tech students for the academic year 2019-2020. Tanuvas had also reserved 15 percent of seats for the students who perform better in the entrance exams organised by Veterinary Council ofIndia.