No govt nod for seat enhancement pleas of 2 private engineering colleges

Bengaluru: The state government has not given its approval for the seat enhancement sought by two top private engineering colleges, which are under scanner in seat-blocking scam during the allotment of seats for the 2024-25 academic year.

The BMS College of Engineering and New Horizon college of Engineering had applied for seat enhancement for the 2025-26 academic year mainly for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence courses. Though the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has cleared the enhancement, the state government has not issued no objection certificate (NOC) for the colleges in question.

“As these two colleges’ names surfaced during the seat-blocking scam reported last year, the department has not cleared their applications yet,” according to a source from the department of Technical Education.

The BMS College has sought enhancement of 120 seats in Computer Science while New Horizon applied for 240 seats in Artificial Intelligence and 660 in Computer Science. 

Officials mentioned that AICTE has cleared the application based on the online submission made by the institutes. Even the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) approved applications for enhancement or introduction of new courses based on the infrastructure. “The AICTE or the VTU have nothing to do with the police investigation, enquiry or the scam. But the government has to look into all the angles while giving NOC,” the official claimed.

Confirming that the file is still pending before the government, Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar said that he is waiting for the legal opinion. “The chargesheet has been submitted and we are studying the same. We will decide about granting approval for enhancement of seats applied by the colleges only after getting the legal opinion,” said Dr Sudhakar. 

Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has announced the seat matrix as per the existing data available (last year seat matrix) for the above two colleges. 

According to the sources, several students had opted for seats under KCET and COMEDK quota at these colleges, last year, but did not report to the colleges. The authorities suspected seat blocking and issued notices to the students. Later the case was handed over to the police, who during the investigation found the involvement of a few middlemen and a KEA staffer, and arrested them.