Hyderabad: Engineering colleges are blocking seats for students who pay hefty amounts beforehand for the B category seats, which are supposed to be filled through counselling. Most JEE students who do not get into IITs will opt for these seats in the later stages.
In a video evidence available with this correspondent, a representative of a private engineering college, CVR at Ibrahhimpatnam, is seen asking for a whopping Rs 14 lakh as ‘donation’, to reserve a seat, and once admitted, the usual fee of Rs 90,000 annually should be paid as usual.
The amount of the ‘donation’ varies, depending on the course. In the video, the college representative demanded Rs 14 lakh for the Computer Science Engineering (CSE) course, Rs 7 lakh for the Electronics and Communication Engineering course, and Rs 8 lakh for the Information Technology (IT) course. When students enquired whether they would get placed at the end of the day, the college representative said that it is not guaranteed and asked whether they want a seat or not; if they want it, they should pay the money.
The seats in the IT branch were already filled up before the college released its counselling schedule, which it was expected to release after the JEE advanced results, which would be conducted on May 27.
According to sources, there are many engineering institutes which are running this ‘summer business’ of selling engineering seats, even setting up separate offices. Some of these offices are situated in Himayat Nagar.
Sharan Raichur of the Telangana Engineering Colleges Joint Action Committee (TEC-JAC) asks how merit students would get their fair share, if the seats are being blocked at this rate.
“At the end of the day, it’s not merit, but whoever buys the seat by paying hefty amounts of donation who will get into these colleges. What about a student who worked hard and managed to secure a better rank in EAMCET and JEE Mains and who doesn’t have money to ‘donate’ to these colleges?” Mr Raichur asks.
Educationists say the higher education council should intervene and closely monitor the B category seat allotment and should ensure that the seats are filled only on merit.
