At a time when the economy is in downturn and engineering students are facing difficulty in getting jobs, the state government has gone ahead with increasing of seats in engineering colleges in the state.

In a sudden move, the West Bengal government has increased around 13,000 seats in the engineering colleges that has raised eyebrows among academicians.

The government plans to increase the seats in the existing colleges as well as set up 25 new engineering colleges that will help in the expansion plan. With this the total number of engineering seats will jump to 32,000 in the state. On Monday, the state Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Roychowdhury announced this in the Assembly.

The decision, however, has not gone down well among the teaching fraternity. “The state government is making a mess of technical education. They should have started a few government colleges in place of the private one and should have stressed on post-graduate courses,” said a teacher of an engineering college.

With the economy not showing encouraging signs and the demand for engineers low, some faculty members questioned the timing of the decision.

A scrutiny of the placements situation across the colleges in the state shows that 50 per cent engineering students are struggling to get placements.

Doubts are being raised whether there would be enough takers for the 32,000 engineering seats in the state since last year, 300 seats of the total 19,324 seats remained vacant.

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