The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body for regulating technical education in the country, stated on Thursday that the last date for it to announce the status of engineering colleges, including renewal of recognition to colleges, inclusion of new courses, student intakes and other related matters was June 30. This date, announced way back in January, was applicable to all states and there was no change in this schedule.
Self-inflicted glitch
The glitch in the CET counselling is self-inflicted as the counselling schedule had not taken into consideration the AICTE’s schedule for according final approvals for colleges, courses and intakes, AICTE officials said in New Delhi on Thursday.
The inconvenience that was being caused to thousands of aspiring students due to the sudden postponement of the counselling, scheduled to begin Friday, could have been avoided, if the Karnataka Examination Authority had taken the AICTE’s June 30 deadline for the mandatory approvals, seriously, they said. AICTE acting chairman S S Mantha told Deccan Herald that the AICTE could not be blamed for the glitch. “When we have still 13 more days left, how can we be blamed for the delay,” he asked.
“The June 30 date is applicable to all colleges in India and not just those in Karnataka. This being the case, it is not proper for anyone to blame the AICTE. Moreover, no other state has complained about any delay in announcing the status of the colleges,” Mantha said, adding that the AICTE would meet the June 30 deadline.
“It was not new and all the institutions are aware of it. In the best interest of the students, the admissions should be held once the Council announces the status of the college”.
The AICTE acting chairman’s views were endorsed by the Human Resource Development Ministry. A ministry official said the AICTE had time till June 30 to announce the status of engineering colleges in the state.
Physical verification
The apex body would have to undertake physical verification of as many as 34 colleges in the state before considering and granting the required AICTE approvals. The AICTE has asked the colleges concerned to furnish some details and information in a revised format by June 19. The verification would start soon after the June 19 deadline and the process would be completed by June 22, AICTE Regional Director Prof Srikrishna said.
The verification and other related reports would be sent to Delhi for AICTE’s consideration at a scheduled meeting of its general body on June 28, said Srikrishna.
While the final seat matrix would be known only after the AICTE approval, the state government on Thursday wondered whether the number of seats available under a revised seat matrix, could be lower than what the KEA had estimated when it had announced the seat matrix and counselling schedule.
Notwithstanding the AICTE position, a statement issued during the day by the Chief Minister’s Office in Bangalore hoped that the revised seat matrix for the engineering seats would be announced by June 25.