AICTE move leaves KEA in lurch

Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali told reporters here on Tuesday, "AICTE had recently notified about the withdraw of accreditation for a few institutions. KEA had already allotted seats for nearly 50 students. So the State agency (KEA) would request the body to reconsider the withdrawal of permission," said the minister on Tuesday. PES Institute of Technology, BLDEA College of Engineering Bijapur, Channabasaveshwara Institute of Technology, Gubbi and CMR Institute of Technology have come under the AICTE axe. Quality check by AICTE has delayed the seat selection process in the State that the KEA has started working even on holidays.

"The upper limit for intake for an institute is 540. However, the council has allotted new branches for colleges like PES Institute of Technology and CMR Institute of Technology. They withdrew the approval for the colleges, when they noticed the error. However, we had already allotted seats for nearly 50 students. We had allocated 35 seats in the PES Institute and in order to save the future of the students, we would request them," said S P Kulkarani, administrative officer, KEA.         

Nine new engineering colleges have also been given approval this year by the apex body. Jain College of Engineering, Veerappa Nisty Engineering College, Shorapur, Godutai Engineering College for Women Gulbarga, AGM Rural Engineering College, Varur, Government Tool Room and Training Centre, Gopalan College of Engineering and Management, Sampoorna Group of Institutions, Channapatana, Kammavari Sangham Group of Institutions, Mallasandra, Bangalore Technological Institute Sarjapura are the institutes which got approval.   

The minister interacted with the candidates and the parents who had come for the counselling and spoke on many student-friendly initiatives including forums for grievance redressal and fee fixation.

Limbavali also told the media that nearly 2,083 candidates had been allotted seats under the poor and meritorious quota. "The intake of 177 colleges in the State is 40,288. There were a few changes in AICTE approval process. The Government will also contemplate a single entrance examination in the State rather than having two," said the minister.