The government’s promise to upgrade six polytechnics into engineering colleges is unlikely to materialise this year, as it is yet to make recommendation to this effect to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
The proposal is to upgrade six polytechnics to engineering colleges in Chikmagalur, Chamarajnagar, Kushalnagar, Bhadravathi, K R Pet and Bijapur.
The government is fast losing out on time as AICTE, in its new rules has specified that only those engineering colleges approved by June 1 will be allowed to admit students this year. AICTE consent is mandatory for starting engineering colleges.
Let alone the AICTE, headquartered in New Delhi, the government has not even sent the proposal to the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) back home in Belgaum, highly placed sources told Deccan Herald.
In fact, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy laid the foundation stone for upgrading the Chamarajnagar polytechnic to engineering college, during his visit to the town on Monday.
However, it is unlikely that the engineering college will start functioning from this academic year, the sources added.
Ditto with the promise to start a new engineering college at Hassan. No proposal has been sent to the AICTE or the VTU.

College at Hassan
The promise to upgrade the six polytechnics and start a new engineering college in Hassan was made in the State budget this year. Each college was to have an intake of 240 seats and the Hassan College 300 seats.
Presently, there are only two government engineering colleges. University BDT College of Engineering, Davangere and University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore are two constituent colleges of Kuvempu University and Bangalore University, respectively.
Apart from these colleges, there are 12 aided colleges, where government has 95 per cent share in total intake.
A candidate who chooses a government engineering seat through the CET Cell has to pay an annual tuition fee of Rs 18,090 compared to Rs 28,090 for a government quota seat in a private engineering college.
When contacted, Higher Education Minister D H Shankaramurthy admitted that there had been a delay in sending the proposals to the AICTE, but remained non-committal on the reasons. “We will try get the colleges cleared this year itself; we will do something”, he said.

HIGHLIGHTS
*Proposal not yet sent to AICTE or VTU
*Only colleges cleared by June 1 will figure in seat     
  matrix
*CET aspirants stand to lose 1,740 government     
    engineering seats due to delay