CET counselling postponed again

Many colleges yet to get AICTE approval

Minister for Higher Education Arvind Limbavali told reporters here on Monday that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had denied approval for many reputable engineering colleges in the State, once again pushing the counselling dates ahead.

“We have been denied 6,012 seats under the CET quota due to the lack of information on 24 engineering colleges and partial information on 13 colleges,” Limbavali said.  The government has so far received information on 148 colleges as against 167 engineering colleges in the State.

Thus the seat matrix for the academic year 2010-11 could not be prepared. Currently, the CET quota has only 30,812 seats as against 36,524 seats approved last year, he said. “As a result, we are postponing the CET counselling session by a week,” the minister added.

Limbavali said July 14 has been fixed as a tentative date for the CET counselling.
He said the problem of engineering colleges not getting approval has been persisting due to the new format envisaged by the revamped executive committee of the AICTE. “We are in a fix over conducting the CET counselling as some prestigious colleges figure in the list of institutes which are yet to get approval,” he said.

Limbavali said that in the event of the problem not getting sorted out at the earliest, they have suggested another option to the AICTE. “If they do not have the requisite information under the new system, then we have asked them to approve the list of colleges which got approval in the last academic year,” he said.

A Government Order in this regard has been sent to the AICTE on Monday itself, he said. Two officials from the Higher Education Department, the Admission Officer at the Karnataka Examination Authority and the Director for Technical Education are scheduled to meet the AICTE officials on Tuesday to discuss the issue.     
Limbavali, who earlier on Monday spoke to the AICTE officials in Delhi, said Chairman S S

Mantha has agreed to “correct” the anomaly at the earliest.  “Mantha has said if the CET counselling is scheduled for July 16 onwards, then they can provide the revised list of institutions,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government has revealed that only seven new engineering colleges in the State have got AICTE approval. Higher Education Department officials indicated that the remaining two colleges were not likely to be given approval this year.

The new colleges are located in the following places: Two in Bangalore, one in Channapatna, one in Gulbarga, one in Belgaum, one in Yadgir and one in Varur. The intake for each of these colleges has been placed at 240 students across various streams.

Awaiting nod

* R V College of Engineering: Only four streams of engineering approved

* PESIT: Only two new streams of engineering approved  

* UVCE : Only one stream of engineering approved

* UVCE (evening): No information

* Malnad College of Engineering: No information

* UBDT: No information

* BMS college of engineering: No information

* NIE (Mysore): No information

* S K Jatti: No information