Delay in engineering counselling may come as a blessing in disguise for nearly 20,000 candidates who cleared the Intermediate supplementary examinations, the results of which were declared a few days ago.
These students had originally failed in the annual examinations of Intermediate held in March but cleared Eamcet and were awarded a rank. As per the original schedule, the supplementary passed students were to be allowed to participate in the second round of counselling only as officials had planned to start the first phase of engineering counselling on June 17, much before the supplementary results were to be declared.
However, with the engineering counselling dates for the first phase yet to be decided and officials continuing to grapple with the fee structure (announcing the fee is mandatory before counselling begins), officials are in a dilemma.
It is whether to include these students in the first phase itself after giving them a separate rank. “We will announce new ranks for these candidates after getting the final result from the Board of Intermediate but whether to include them in the counselling is the decision of the CET Committee,” an official said.
It is also quite likely that the CET Committee may take a positive decision which means if these students are allowed to participate in the first phase itself, they will have more choice in terms of good colleges and courses.
Officials said 26,940 students had failed in the annual exams but cleared the Eamcet engineering stream while the number of such students is 7,307 in the medical stream. Officials expect that among the 26,940 candidates, about 20,000 would have cleared backlogs and will be eligible for a new rank.
Till last year, Eamcet ranks were announced only after the supplementary results were declared to ensure that compartmental students also benefitted. However, due to the Supreme Court guidelines, officials had to declare EAMCET results before June 5.
The Eamcet Committee faced severe criticism from several quarters for delaying the results for supplementary candidates and making the ‘good’ students wait for results. The delay had also led to several students moving to other States as counselling too was invariably delayed.
