The reason being the failure of the reserved category students to clear the minimum cut-offs, sources said.

Among the total students admitted, 667 belong to general category and the rest are from reserved categories.

So the institute has transferred the 127 remaining seats to its preparatory courses as mandated by the Union HRD Ministry.

“Under the preparatory programme, the students are taught physics, chemistry and mathematics at the institute and at the end of the term they appear for an examination,” said Prof A N Samanata, Chairman of the JEE-2009, IIT-Kharagpur.

“If they qualify in the examination they are inducted into the programme, the next year,” he added. According to Samanta, the 127 students enrolled for the preparatory courses are from SC, ST and PH (physically handicapped) categories.

Last year too, the institute had failed to fill up 100 seats.

There is also a growing concern about the number of high-ranking students who are not keen to join IIT-Kharagpur.

The officials of the institute, however, dismissed the claim.

“I personally feel that most of the students want to join the IITs located in the metros. That is why over the last two years a lot of students are joining IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Delhi,” said a senior professor at the institute.

“An institute, however, cannot be judged only on the basis of being popular among the students but also on the quality of research and the industrial consultancy,” the professor added.

But the statistics show otherwise. Of the top 100 rankers in the 2009 IIT Entrance Test, not a single student joined IIT-Kharagpur.

Instead they opted for IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Delhi.

Among the first 100 rankers, 69 students chose IIT-Mumbai and 19 other preferred to get enrolled at IIT-Delhi. Only 63 from the top 500 have joined IIT-Kharagpur this year.

Another reason for the top rankers from skipping IIT-Kharagpur is the dismal performance of regional students in the entrance examination. Only 31 students from the region have made it to the first 500 in this year’s IIT-JEE.

NUMBERS SPEAK
* Among the 1,011 total students who got admission this year, 667 belong to general category and the rest are from reserved categories
* Of the top 100 rankers in the 2009 IIT Entrance Test, not a single student joined IIT-Kharagpur
* Among the top 100, 69 students chose IIT-Mumbai and 19 other preferred to get enrolled at IIT-Delhi
* Only 63 from the top 500 have joined IIT-Kharagpur this year
* Only 31 students from the region have made it to the first 500 in this year’s IIT-JEE