Counselling put off to July 7
Delay in regulatory bodies’ announcement derails schedule in State
Counselling for engineering seats in the State has been postponed from June 26 to July 7, due to the delay in approval of several colleges by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) .
Addressing reporters in Bangalore on Thursday, Higher Education Minister V S Acharya said that though his department had made all preparations to conduct engineering counselling as per schedule, the delay in announcement of seats by apex bodies like AICTE, Medical Council of India (MCI), Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISMH) and Dental Council of India (DCI), had forced this rescheduling.
The AICTE has so far approved the availability of seats in only 145 colleges out of 184 engineering colleges. A meeting scheduled for June 21 for the approval process has also been postponed to June 28.
The minister, however, said that engineering counselling would end as per the schedule on September 16, and to make up for the delay, the Karnataka Examination Authority staff has been directed to work during the weekends as well. Officials explained the decision to postpone the counselling by pointing to last year, when the decision to go ahead with counselling before AICTE approvals were received backfired on them.
It turned out that seats had been alloted in a course in a private college, which, eventually, did not receieve clearance from AICTE. Luckily for the government, a hike in intake in another college salvaged the situation.
Among the states, Karnataka is the earliest to schedule its counselling process, while other states usually begin the process only by late July or early August.
AICTE has set aside 5 per cent free seats for meritorious students who come from families with an income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh a year. Acharya said students seeking reservation under the income criteria have to produce their original income certificates to KEA by July 7.
The state government had written to AICTE requesting it to set the cut off percentage of 40 per cent for students coming under the reserved category. AICTE has given its approval of 45 per cent for reserved category students, and 50 per cent for general category students.
Acharya said that though the medical and dental counselling was going as per schedule, MCI was yet to approve seats in government medical colleges in Hassan, Mandya, Shimoga, Bidar and Raichur. The medical counselling would end on August 11, while the ISMH counseling will conclude on August 8.
Counselling for medical and dental seats continued on Thursday, with all medical seats alloted, while 122 dental seats were left. All seats in the General merit category have also been taken up. Friday is the last date scheduled for counselling.
