Minority Quota for Engineering to be Scrapped

Wrangling over the hike in fee structure between the state government and private college managements, the Karnataka state higher education department is contemplating on doing away with the poor meritorious quota in Common Entrance Test (CET) 2011 for undergraduate engineering courses.

In the two years that it has been around (since 2009), around 20,000 meritorious students from economically weaker sections have benefitted from this quota and taken admission to undergraduate engineering courses within Karnataka.

According to sources, this move is being taken to accommodate the demands of private professional colleges over the fee structure. So far, students under the income group of Rs. 2 lakh were entitled for seats under the quota on payment of an annual fee of Rs18, 000 as against Rs.30, 000 fee for government quota seats. The government paid the remaining fee as subsidy towards the quota. In the first year of its implementation, about 15, 000 students had managed to get admission through the minority reservation, whereas, in 2010, just 4,500 students availed seats through the quota. This fall in number made the organizing committee decide to fix a rank ceiling of 20,000 for eligibility for undergraduate engineering courses as well.