3,000 seats at NITs, IITs are still vacant

Hyderabad: Despite having joint counselling for admissions to the IITs, NITs and other Central institutions, vacant seats are still a problem.

The JoSAA on Saturday decided not to get involved in filling up vacant seats in IITs and NITs. Authorities said the decision will be taken by the IITs’ Joint Admission Board (JAB) and the NITs’ CSAB this week.

The Joint Seat Allocation Authority business rules does not allow a student to withdraw after payment of acceptance fee and reporting at the centre.

Moreover, the seat also gets blocked and will not be allotted to other students. JoSAA officials said nearly 3,000 students have not reported after the fourth round of counselling this year.

“There is no option to withdraw from seat allocation or to surrender an allocated seat other than by rejecting the seat,” says JoSAA’s business rules.

The only way to reject seats is by not paying the acceptance fee or not reporting at the centre.

After reporting, students can opt to freeze their seat, slide or float. Sliding is within the allotted college and floating is for a better college and branch.

If students are not freezing their seats and opt for sliding or floating it means that they are not content with the allotment.

JoSAA held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue of vacant seats. Spot admissions are also likely.

JoSAA coordinator MP Singh said, “JoSAA will not fill any further seats. The JAB of IITs and CSAB of NITs will take a decision about it individually after August 5. JoSAA has left it to them.”

About 60 seats in NIT Warangal and 80 seats in NIT Andhra Pradesh are said to be vacant as students allotted those seats didn’t turn up.