Four Students Drown While Swimming in Surathkal
Mangaluru: Four students tragically drowned while swimming under the Koppal dam railway bridge in Surathkal on Tuesday afternoon. The incident came to light late at night.
The deceased, all students of a private school in Surathkal, have been identified as Yashvit (15), Raghavendra (15), Nirup (15), and Anvit (15).
According to reports, the students had gone for an English Pre-Preparation Examination and then proceeded to Old Town, where they went for a swim under the railway bridge. Four of the students left their school bags on the riverbank and entered the water. Unfortunately, they drowned while their three friends who were with them went home.
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Upon receiving a complaint about the missing children, the Surathkal police launched an investigation. They checked CCTV footage near the school and bus stand, which showed the children boarding a bus at Surathkal bus stand and getting down at the Haleangadi bus stop. The police then confirmed the location of the boys using their mobile phone signals.
The bodies of the deceased have been sent to VenLock Hospital in Mangalore for post-mortem.
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Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy admissions to be through NEET from 2026–27
Bengaluru: Admission to undergraduate programmes in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy will be conducted exclusively through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from the academic year 2026–27, the Karnataka State Allied and Healthcare Council has said.
In a press note issued on Friday, Council Chairman Prof. U. T. Iftikhar Ali Fareed said the decision follows a communication from the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) to the National Testing Agency and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
According to the notification, the NCAHP has finalised the category-wise degree nomenclature and admission criteria for Allied and Healthcare undergraduate programmes and communicated the same to the University Grants Commission for adoption from the 2026–27 academic year.
As per the guidelines, admissions to the Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT), classified under Category 3, and the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (BOT), classified under Category 6, will be carried out only through NEET, in accordance with the provisions of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021.
The Council has asked Vice-Chancellors of public universities, private state universities and deemed-to-be universities to take note of the revised admission procedure and ensure that the information is widely circulated among affiliated colleges, faculty members and students seeking admission to these courses.
Universities have also been directed to take necessary steps to ensure strict compliance with the NCAHP admission process for the 2026–27 academic year and for subsequent years.
