29 students lose seats
As many as 29 students who had chosen seats in civil engineering at the Sri Jagadguru Gangadharnath Swamji Institute of Technology, Kengeri through the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) had a rude shock when they were told that their seats had been withdrawn following cutting down of intake.
Latest in the series of goof-ups in the admission to undergraduate engineering courses this year, these students became the victims of an apparent lackadaisical attitude of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the KEA.
According to a candidate who secured 16,000 rank in the CET, while the AICTE had reduced the number of seats in the said college in the first week of July itself, the KEA apparently did not convey the same to the candidates until July 31.
"They say the KEA website could not be updated until then. Hence, we were not informed. This is completely unfair. Had they informed us earlier, we would not have chosen the seats in that college," a candidate told Deccan Herald on condition of anonymity.
Although the KEA called the candidates to its premises late in the evening to allot them seats in corresponding colleges, what it offered was "too little, too late".
"They are offering us seats in second-rate colleges. How can we agree," said the father of another student.
The college had an intake of 120 seats in civil engineering which the AICTE reduced to 60. Consequently, the share of government seats also got down to 30 seats (50 percent as per the seat matrix). Hence, 29 students suddenly became "extras".
The KEA offered them seats at Kammavari Sangham Institute of Technology, Global Academy of Technology, Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology, besides seats in other disciplines at the SJBIT.
Legal battle
SP Kulkarni, Administrative Officer, KEA, asked the students to take the seats being offered to them and wait for the casual vacancy round for taking seats in other colleges, if available. But, if they are not satisfied, the KEA would wage a legal battle against AICTE to undo the injustice.
According to him, it was the fault of the AICTE which cut down the intake as the total number of seats in all streams in SJBIT exceeded 540.
