DTE Asks AICTE to Limit Engineering Seats to 420

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) suggested to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) that the intake capacity of engineering colleges in the state should be limited to 420 to reduce the number of seats lying vacant.

The AICTE, which governs all technical institutes in India, has in a letter to the principal secretary for higher and technical education, asked the state government’s views to improve the policy on granting approval to new colleges, extending approval to existing colleges and reduction of college intake.

Sitaram Kunte, the Principal Secretary, mentioned that earlier they accepted recommendations from the state but midway it started approving colleges and intake despite a decrease in demand for some courses. Hence, this year they had asked AICTE to take the state's suggestions.

Around 40 percent seats in engineering institutes have been going vacant for the past two years. This year, of a total of 1.44 lakh seats are available, wherein 64,418 are unoccupied. While this number is comparatively lesser than last year’s vacancy of 64,625, the number of admissions has dropped from 89,242 to 79,435, indicating a drop in demand for engineering courses in the state.

The suggestions will be vetted by Kunte before being presented to the AICTE. He added that he is yet to look at the drafted suggestions.