The Karnataka government on Wednesday accepted private colleges' demand for 50:50 seat sharing between government and managements of private medical and dental colleges for the 2005-06 academic year.

The government had earlier decided on a 55-45 formula, which was not acceptable to private colleges.

Private professional college managements stuck to their stand that no seat-sharing formula that is short of the 50:50 ratio was acceptable to them.

The state cabinet decided to go in for a compromise keeping in mind students' interests, minister for information B Shivaram told reporters.

This decision promises to pave the way for a smooth counselling process for medical and dental college candidates qualifying in the Common Entrance Test.

Following the acceptance of the 50:50 seat-sharing formula, the state will lose about 150 seats in medical courses, Shivaram said, adding it will make good the loss in the four new medical colleges it was starting this year.

The 65:35 seat-sharing formula agreed upon for engineering courses last year will prevail for the coming academic year, he said.

The previous year's fee structure will also apply for the coming year for all professional courses, Shivaram said.