CET: Government, Karnataka Examination Authority cross swords

Bengaluru: Two government departments i.e. the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) and the state higher education department, are at loggerheads over holding the third round of engineering seat allotment counseling for the Common Entrance Test (CET) students.

Even though KEA wants to hold the final seat allotment counseling for the vacant government quota seats in the private colleges of the state, the higher education department has refused permission.
It all started with hundreds of CET students vacating their CET government quota seats, allotted in the elite private engineering colleges after securing seats in the prestigious Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and NITs.

Following this development, the KEA officials wrote a letter to the state higher education department, asking permission to hold the third round of the CET engineering seat allotment process to fill vacant seats.

If these seats remain empty even after August 14, all those seats will become management quota seats as per the consensual agreement signed between the state government and the COMED-K. But now, according to sources, the state higher education department has declined permission to hold the third round counseling.

“This means, KEA cannot hold the final round of counseling for these vacant seats. What makes the situation worse is that seats which will soon become management quota seats, are in the elite colleges, where a management quota seat fetches between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. NITs and IITs do not have a last date for filling up seats. Why is only KEA given the deadline of August 14 to complete the process?” questioned an officer who is keeping track of developments. With the state higher education department declining to hold the third round of counseling, KEA has not yet counted the exact number of vacant government quota seats in the private colleges after the completion of the second extended round.

First come first served: Meanwhile, the state higher education department has decided to fill 567 unfilled seats available in the government engineering colleges based on a first-come-first-served basis. “August 13 is the last date to apply for these seats. Those who did not appear for the CET examination will also be considered for seat allotment based on their qualifying II PUC final examination. Among these 567 seats, 27 seats are in the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering of the city.