KEA adds 7,415 more BE seats

Medical seats to go up to 2,442; Comed-K engineering counselling faces hiccups on Day One

Students aspiring to study BE now have a reason to rejoice: the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has added 7,415 surrendered seats to the matrix.

That means, there will be at least 58,637 engineering seats in colleges across the State. The number is bound to increase as more surrendered seats are likely to be added to the matrix later.

There is also some good news for medical aspirants. While there are 2,094 MBBS seats at present, the number will reach 2,442 eventually. Besides, there are 795 BDS seats, 2,172 seats in agriculture sciences and 541 BE (architecture) seats.

While CET students are still entering options online, the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K) began the counselling for engineering courses on Friday. The medical counselling has been completed.

The Comed-K Executive Director, A S Srikanth, said the deadline for students to surrender seats might be extended for the second round. “The government had made a request in this regard and we were considering it as well, keeping students’ interests in mind,” he said. The dates will be announced shortly.

As more students are appearing for the engineering counselling compared with the medical stream, the schedule was a bit delayed on the first day. What further delayed the process were half-furnished documents and erroneous demand drafts (DDs) submitted by the students and other problems stemming from confusion among the candidates.

‘Need not pay entire fee’

The Comed-K had asked students to carefully go through the procedure before appearing for the counselling. Unlike in the medical counselling, engineering students need not pay the entire fee while selecting seats — they need to pay just Rs 50,000.

As a result, more students attend the engineering counselling compared with the medical stream. “Students from Karnataka will get a full refund if they choose seats through CET later,” Srikanth stressed.

Nonetheless, the delay put many students to hardship, especially the outstation candidates. A student from Andhra Pradesh said her turn overshot two hours and she was still waiting. “We appreciate all other arrangements, except for the allotted slots. I have to return to my hometown near Anantapur,” said the student who had come with her family. She came to Bangalore to take a seat as it is closer home compared with Hyderabad, she added.

But a student from the City preferred the KEA counselling. “I find it much better. We do not have to wait like this and can enter options at our convenience,” he told Deccan Herald.

Many skip counselling

Of the total 2,550 students scheduled to attend the counselling on day one, less than half — 1,125 — turned up.

Out of them, 1,052 were allotted seats by the Comed-K. On second day, 16,656 seats will be available in the general merit category, 162 in the Christian Minority (for Karnataka students) and 60 seats for Tulu minority (for Karnataka students).


Number of CET  seats

* Engineering: 58, 637
* Architecture: 505
* Medical: 2, 094
* Dental: 795
* BSc Agriculture: 1, 720
* BVsc: 60
* BTech (Food): 333
* BTech (Agri): 59