Engineering seats at a discount

BANGALORE: An engineering management quota seat for Rs 15,000? Dirt cheap, compared to the fee of Rs 47,000 fixed for the payment seat category by the state government.
Too good to be real, but management quota seats are indeed going for a song. With 6,500 engineering seats still vacant, college managements are willing to admit students for a throwaway price.
And II PUC students, who have cleared the 2002 supplementary examinations and fulfilled the eligibility condition of 50 per cent, are expected to make the most of the situation.
With the government deciding to allow such students to enrol for engineering courses, college managements hope to fill seats by admitting these students. The seats will not be offered through the CET Cell, rather, college managements will be asked to fill them under the management quota. Hence, engineering colleges are luring students with their discounted rates.
With all seats full up in top engineering colleges, students will however, have to contend with the not-so-prestigious colleges. This year, around 29,813 students passed the II PUC supplementary examinations, and the results were declared on Tuesday.
The Director of Technical Education has convened a formal `reconciliation meeting'' with representatives of college managements, Visvesvaraya Technological University and CET Cell on November 7 and 8. At the meeting, the number of vacant seats will be finalised and colleges directed to fill them before the last date set by VTU.
VTU Bangalore Regional Officer Jayaprakash said the University would allow colleges to admit II PUC students who complete their course in the supplementary examinations, provided they fulfil eligibility requirements.
``Since the government has issued an order, we allow colleges to admit students but before the last date for admissions. We have not yet fixed the last date for this year as we want to give the students adequate admission time,'''' he said.
Sources said Karnataka was forced to follow this norm as most neighbouring states, including Andhra Pradesh, had implemented this rule to provide students a second chance to make their careers in engineering.
``We could not deny our students this opportunity. Frankly, students who pass II PUC in supplementary examinations find it difficult to cope with the tough engineering course, but nevertheless, it would be unfair to deny them an opportunity,'''' they said.
Sources also said it was deliberately decided not to offer the vacant seats to these students through the CET Cell but surrender them to managements, following the exorbitant fee of Rs 47,000 fixed for payment category seats.
``We are told that managements are offering the seats at a throwaway price compared to Rs 47,000 we charge. Some managements are even willing to admit students for a lowly fee of Rs 15,000. Despite all these efforts, they still find it difficult to fill seats,'''' they added.