Deadlock continues over engg seat sharing

The Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering College Association (KUEPCA) will form a committee to persuade the government to agree to its demand for increasing engineering course fees, before the election code of conduct comes into force.

A meeting between KUEPCA and the government, on Saturday, over the signing of consensual agreement ended in an impasse  with both parties refusing to budge from their earlier known stand. 

A similar meeting on Febuary 13 between dental and medical colleges’  managments and KUEPCA ended in a deadlock. “The members of the committee will be drawn from various colleges in Dakshina Kannada, Mysore, and Shimoga to decide on the further course of action. We don’t want to fight with the government” KUEPCA Secretary Panduranga Setty said.

After backtracking from the plan to implement the Karnataka Professional Education Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006, the government now wants private colleges to sign a consensual agreement by which the latter would be bound to an arrangement of fees and seat matrix that was in place in 2013-14 for another four years.

Private colleges, however, refused to sign the agreement saying that they could no longer continue with the arrangement.