Now, those engineering diploma students aspiring to get direct admission to second year engineering courses can get admissions on the basis of merit. They would not have to “buy” seats as the directorate of technical education (DTE) in its latest notification has said that around 2,000 vacant seats in various engineering colleges across the state would be filled at the institution level but only on merit basis.

Students who complete recognised engineering diploma courses are eligible for direct admission to second year engineering courses. As per the procedure, three rounds of centralised admission process (CAP) are already over. However, even after that around 2,000 seats are still vacant across several colleges.

“Till the last academic year, these seats used to get filled at college level but not necessarily on merit basis. Mostly, the seats were “sold” to students who could “afford” it,” Shreedhar Vaidya, secretary of TAFNAP.

The DTE notification published on September 19 says that the institutions should fill the vacant seats after CAP round 3 through transparent procedure. It further says: “Colleges should display the position of vacant seats on their notice boards and publish the same in the form of advertisements in at least two newspapers. The DTE on its website has published the merit list of those students who are eligible for institution level admissions. The institutes, which have received applications from students featuring in this merit list, should prepare their own merit list and accordingly give admissions.”

Director of technical education S K Mahajan said that the idea was to bring transparency in the whole process.

... contd.