APSCHE ‘sell-out’ proposal kicks up a row

The proposal, almost ratified at a ‘star hotel meeting’ of CET panel which met to defer the EAMCET date in the wake of General Elections, has raked up several issues concerning the all important tech exam of the state.

A powerful private college managements lobby has worked out this plan, top sources said.

It may be known that 70 percent of admissions in nearly 689 private engineering colleges will be made in convener quota and the remaining 30 percent in management quota. Out of this 30 percent, 15 percent of seats will have to be earmarked for NRIs or NRI guardians- for which marks secured in Intermediate or equivalent will be the criterion.

The CET panel has now decided to fill up the remaining 15 percent seats of management quota on the basis of Intermediate marks as well, thereby making the entire B category admissions in a “single window”.

However, according to EAMCET GO, "Single Window System" means a system by which available seats in all the Institutions are offered through Common Centralized Counselling or Decentralized Online Counselling to qualified candidates in order of merit in the Common Entrance Test”.

This means, the Council has whacked the very spirit of EAMCET with this decision. Rattled by criticism from many quarters, the Chairman of Council, Prof L Venkatarama Reddy, has at pains to say that “the proposal is only for the left over seats”.

This again creates confusion. “The left over seats will in any way be filled on the basis of Inter marks and that was already mentioned in the GOs. So, what does he mean by ‘left over’? It is nothing but the remaining 15 percent only”, a senior official of Higher Education Department criticized.

“We have done nothing new. Earlier, JEE rankers will get priority followed by rankers of other states, then comes EAMCET rankers and the last priority will be for Intermediate pass outs. Now, it is reversed. We gave Inter marks as the top priority and the entire B category admissions will be done on that basis” LV Reddy told The Hans India.

This brings out a question that ‘In such circumstances, where is the need for EAMCET at all?’. The officials fail to clear the air that whether the students, who intend to join in private colleges under management quota, need to write EAMCET at all?

Commissioner of Technical Education, Ajay Jain, who is also a member of the CET committee, has defended the decision saying that the practice of filling of management quota seats on the basis of Intermediate marks has already been there in medical admissions and the same is now being applied to engineering admissions. “The 25 percent of weightage is different. It was made in tune with the advice of the High Court which directed us to make a clear policy on Category B admissions, which has been a headache for us every year” Ajay Jain explained to The Hans India.

The proposal now makes two different systems on admissions in engineering colleges. While 70 percent of admissions will be totally on EAMCET rank, the 30 percent of seats will be on Inter marks.

Top sources said the move would in some way benefit the elite engineering colleges where admission is seen as hot cakes. The colleges can now brazenly sell away the seats for a higher amount, according to observers. “Even now, they have been selling off seats to a whopping amount. They are evading punishment by simply paying a paltry amount of Rs 13,000 per seat as a penalty. The colleges can now do it rather publicly” a senior academician working at a prominent coaching institute remarked.

The proposal will not only further degenerate the already worsened quality of engineering education, but open up gates for more irregularities in Intermediate education as well. The students, in an attempt to get seat in engineering on marks basis, may resort to foul means, a lecturer in Sri Chaitanya College said.