From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Jun 23: Consequent to the delay in the approval of seats in several reputed engineering colleges in Karnataka by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), counselling for engineering seats has been postponed and will now commence from July 7.

Karnataka’s Higher Education Minister Dr V S Acharya squarely blamed apex bodies such as AICTE, Medical Council of India (MCI), Dental Council of India, and Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISMH) for rescheduling of the counselling dates.

While speaking to reporters in Bangalore on Thursday, he said as per the schedule, counselling for engineering seats should have started from June 27. But the AICTE has not approved the number of availability of eats in 39 engineering colleges.

Out of 184 colleges in the State, he said AICTE has approved seats in 145 colleges.

In order to avoid inconvenience to students, the Government had decided to postpone the counselling, he said.

A meeting of the AICTE, which was scheduled to be held on June 21, has been postponed to June 28.

Students belonging to the reserved category have to secure 45 per cent marks in 12th standard examination to seek admission in engineering course. General category students have to secure 50 per cent marks.

Students of PCSE (physics, chemistry, statistics and electronics) subjects are also eligible for admission for this year, the Minister said.

The students seeking reservation under income criteria have to produce original income certificates to the CET cell on July 7.

The AICTE has earmarked 5 per cent of free fee seats for students belonged to families whose annual income was less than Rs. 2.5 lakh. All colleges have to earmark 5 per cent of seats for meritorious students belonged to poor families, he said.

In order to complete the counselling process before the stipulated closing date (September 16), the Minister said staff of the CET cell would be asked to discharge duties on Saturdays and Sundays also.

However, the Minister indicated that MCI has not approved number of admission seats in government medical colleges at Shimoga, Bidar, Raichur, Hassan and Mandya so far.

The DCI and ISMH have also not approved the number of available seats in private and government colleges, Dr Acharya said.

But the Minister was confident of completing the entire counselling process in all courses before the stipulated closing dates.

He said August 11 is the last day for counselling for medical and ayurvedic seats and August 9 for ISMH while July 29 is the last date for counselling for architecture course and September 16 for engineering course.