Thursday, July 08, 2010
Bangalore: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has retained the engineering colleges intake in the State on a par with that of the previous academic year, thus paving the way for commencement of counselling for engineering admission from July 14.

Minister for Higher Education Arvind Limbavali informed the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that the AICTE had sent a communication to the State Government approving the same intake. “The AICTE has approved last year's intake to all engineering colleges across the country and the same will apply to colleges in Karnataka as well,” it said. Mr. Limbavali was responding to the issue raised by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah during Zero Hour on Wednesday in a bid to bring to the Government's notice the anxiety gripping thousands of students and their parents over the uncertainty in admissions to engineering courses. The counselling for engineering seats was originally scheduled to begin on June 18 and was subsequently postponed to July 7 in view of the delay in receiving approval from AICTE.

On Wednesday, Mr. Limbavali laid the blame squarely at the doorstep of AICTE. The council had not approved even a single seat in 24 colleges and approved a portion of the seats in 13 other colleges. “In view of the confusion, we decided to put off the counselling,” he said.

However, a team of officials from the State had been despatched to New Delhi to hold discussions with AICTE. “I also personally spoke to AICTE chief and the matter has now been resolved,” Mr. Limbavali added.