AP: Who needs more engineering seats?

HYDERABAD: More than one lakh seats in engineering colleges went abegging last year, but college managements have successfully persuaded the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to sanction 40,000 more seats to the state.This whopping addition to the 3.2 lakh seats already available in the existing engineering colleges comes after the state government asked the Centre not to permit any more colleges or sanction any more seats.Curiously, after last year’s Eamcet counselling saw no takers for a third of the available seats, some college managements themselves met chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and urged him to write to the AICTE and the Centre asking them not to permit any more new colleges or additional seats for at least a few more years.There was no acknowledgement of this from either the Centre of the AICTE.Many of the state’s engineering colleges are beset with problems such as lack of adequate faculty and labs, poor academic standards, and dearth of placement opportunities.A three-man committee set up by the state government to recommend measures to shore up engineering education in the state suggested that there be a moratorium on the number of seats and colleges.The AICTE’s largesse is likely the result of lobbying by engineering colleges which would like to secure a higher sanctioned strength before a formal cap is imposed by the technical education regulator.Insiders in college circles said  most engineering colleges applied for additional seats fearing that the chief minister’s letter and committee recommendations would cap their potential market from the next academic year.Speaking to Express, the chairman of an engineering college said, “We wanted to get as many seats as possible before the Centre announces a cap on the number of seats. We hope there will be a reversal of the trend in admissions in the next couple of years.”With the addition of these 40,000 seats, the number of seats in the state’s engineering colleges would go up to 3.5 lakh. This year at least, there is little likely of all of them being taken. This year, only 2.7 lakh students applied for the Eamcet exam.