Engineering counseling starts, 982 seats filled, 43,323 left. CET candidates with
ranks from 1,601 to 3,200 can attend counseling sessions today
Finally, the long wait ended on Thursday 7th July. Students
started lapping up government quota engineering seats as the Common Entrance Test
(CET) counseling had a nail-biting start at seven centres across the state.
Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), that conducts the test and seat selection
sessions, has declared 73,168 students eligible for engineering seats this year.
On Thursday 7th July - the first day of counseling - CET candidates who have secured
ranks from 1 to 1,600 were called for seat selection under the general merit category.
Note that the total number of engineering seats available to CET candidates is 47,697
in 188 colleges. This year, 83,489 engineering seats are available in the state
in total.
KEA said all engineering seats in the Electronics and Communications stream that
were available for CET students under the general merit category were taken on Thursday.
Initially, the engineering counseling was scheduled to begin on June 27, but the
state government was forced to postpone it by 10 days to Thursday, as the All India
Council for Technical Education (AICTE) delayed sending approvals for engineering
courses. State higher education minister VS Acharya visited the KEA cell in Malleswaram
in the morning when the counseling kicked off and addressed the session. "This
year, all eligible and aspiring candidates will get engineering seats as the number
of seats has gone up. Six new colleges have been approved," Acharya said. Along
with the seats, the number of students eligible for engineering seats has also been
jacked up. When the CET results were announced, the count of candidates eligible
for engineering seats was 60,543. AICTE had altered the eligibility slab for aggregate
marks in Science subjects from 45% to 50% (GM & OBC) and from 40% to 45% (SC, ST)
for engineering seats. It then changed the eligibility criterion to include Computer
Science and Electronics students, increasing the number.
But it later gave in to the pressure exerted from various states to drop the change
in eligibility cap. After these last-minute changes, KEA came out with a revised
rank list with 73,168 students eligible. Due to the delay in the commencement of
the engineering counseling, KEA is now racing against time. It has planned to hold
counseling sessions even on weekends without break as the deadline for the completion
of the seat selection process is August 2. Of the total 44,305 seats that were available
to CET candidates in the general merit category, 982 were filled on Thursday 7th
July. Those who have secured ranks from 1,601 to 3,200 are eligible to attend the
second day of the counseling today.
Courtesy: DNA India
