AICTE to return withdrawn seats in engineering colleges

In a big relief to the state government and those aspiring to pursue professional courses, Karnataka on Monday got back over 450 engineering seats at its government colleges that were previously withdrawn by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The scrutiny committee of the AICTE which had inspected these colleges suggested withdrawal of the seats, citing infrastructure.

However, with the state government assuring to address the lapses, the AICTE has agreed to return the withdrawn seats for the academic year 2019-20.

Visiting the colleges sometime ago, the scrutiny committee had recommended a reduction in the intake or refused to extend permission for admission in some of these colleges. However, the state government, considering the situation and its aftermath, assured the AICTE that the lapses will be addressed at the earliest. The additional chief secretary (ACS), Higher Education made a representation to the AICTE on the government’s decision to address all the deficiencies pointed by the committee.

Confirming the move, sources in AICTE told DH that the seats will be available for admission this year. “We have given the approval for admissions only for 2019-20 academic year as there was an official communication from the ACS, Higher Education, about addressing the deficiencies within one-year,” a top official revealed.

Of the 11 government engineering colleges across Karnataka, four colleges were asked to reduce the intake and one was barred from admitting students.

The move would have resulted in 450 engineering seats out of the 2,400 seats available for students at all the
government colleges being lost. In this context, the ACS held repeated meetings with the government and conveyed the same to AICTE, appealing to reconsider their decision.

Following the assurance, AICTE is sending communication to individual colleges, updating their admission status. DH is in possession of the communication letter sent to the Chamarajanagar Government Engineering College, which was barred from admitting students.

Some of the deficiencies that were identified at these colleges include teacher-student ratio, quality laboratories, skilled staff, anti-ragging cell, internal complaints committee and other facilities.