Maharashtra engineering colleges: 81,175 aspirants allotted seats in first round

The first round of allocation was to be announced on Monday but was delayed by a day owing to technical problems.

IN THE first round of seat allocation announced on Tuesday, 81,175 engineering aspirants were allotted seats in colleges across the state. The first round of allocation was to be announced on Monday but was delayed by a day owing to technical problems.

While 2.6 lakh students had qualified for admission to engineering colleges, only 1.02 lakh of them had confirmed their application forms. Those allocated seats now have the option to ‘freeze’, ‘float’ or ‘slide’ the seats allocated to them.

The candidate can ‘freeze’ a seat if they get their choice of course and college at any stage of counselling. The students may also choose to ‘slide’ to a course which they had marked as higher preference at any stage of the counselling. They also have the option to ‘float’, by which they can avail a seat at a college marked as a higher preference. The students can change their preference only at the fourth round of counselling.

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“All students who have been allocated seats, must visit the admission reporting centre irrespective of whether they are satisfied with the seat allotted to them,” said Dayanand Meshram, Joint Director, Directorate of Technical Education (DTE). He said those who will fail to report at the ARC within July 5, will also lose the opportunity of reallocation in the subsequent rounds.

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Meanwhile, the number of seats has increased after the High Court granted interim relief to some colleges that had been asked to reduce intake or not admit students this year by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

When the MH-CET results were declared, the total number of seats was 1,38,741. This has now increased to 1,48,436.

After an enquiry revealed that engineering colleges in the state lacked proper infrastructure and faculty, the AICTE had reduced the intake of 131 colleges across Maharashtra. It had also withheld admissions into 54 colleges — six colleges in Mumbai and one in Kolhapur — this year.

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However, 10 of these colleges were later granted stay and have been allowed to admit students, according to data available on DTE website.

Members of Citizen Forum For Sanctity in Educational Institutions (CFSE), the non-governmental organisation, whose complaints had led to the governor initiating an enquiry into the erring colleges, said the stays were unfair. “For the last four years, the colleges have managed to obtain stay on any action sought by the AICTE or DTE,” said Vaibhav Narwade, Secretary of CFSE.

There are 365 engineering colleges in the state, of which eight are government colleges and four are aided. Minority students have 13,401 reserved seats.