Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) has alleged the state government of Odisha for increasing the seats in Engineering colleges of the state without the official consent of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
OPECA is now opposing this decision of increasing number of seats without the prior permission as they mentioned that government institutions have increased their number of seats from 1,214 in the academic year of 2015-16 to 336 in the academic year of 2016-17. Seats for M. Tech course has also been increased. An increment of 779 seats has been witnessed in the last two academic years.
"The government is going ahead with the expansion without increasing faculty and meeting the minimum standards required to enhance the capacity, in gross violation of the AICTE norms. The government colleges are giving advertisements in newspapers claiming that their courses have been approved by the state government. This is not the norm for opening a new branch. It needs AICTE approval and the government's move of expansion defies logic because several seats are lying vacant in private colleges. Of the around 46,000 seats, more than 50% went without first-year admissions in the past four years." Binod Dash who is the secretary of OPECA said on this issue.
As soon as the facts about this were revealed, many officials came in defending the state government's decision. "Universities have the autonomy to open new courses without AICTE approval. The AICTE approval is binding on private colleges. Despite the AICTE approval not being mandatory, the VSSUT is still in the process of obtaining it for all the new courses because that will ensure the M. Tech students become eligible for scholarships/stipends from the ministry of human resource development." E Saibaba Reddy, the vice-chancellor of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla, said in defense.
However, the decision of the state government was legit enough or not is yet to be decided. Till then, stay updated about the daily news and views across the nation here on Brainbuxa.