With allotment of private quota seats by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) preceding the allotment of government quota seats of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) this year, the demand for engineering seats in many sought-after colleges, particularly the ones in Bangalore, has gone up.
Interestingly, this year, the number of students who attended the counselling on day one was much more than earlier years as students decided to grab engineering seats through COMEDK to ‘play safe’ as allotment of seats by the KEA will be only on July 10.
Of the 2,550 students who were called for counselling, 1,125 attended the programme here on Friday. As many as 1,052 seats were grabbed by engineering aspirants out of which 455 students were from Karnataka. However, none of the seats in the Christian minority and Tulu minority category was taken on Friday.
Rush for city colleges
Students fixed their eyeballs on the projector where the seat matrix was constantly being updated. Several engineering colleges also put up stalls at the venue to woo students by showcasing their curriculum and infrastructure.
Seats from Bangalore colleges such as R.V. College of Engineering (RVCE), People’s Education Society Institute of Technology (PESIT) and BMS College of Engineering were the ones that were getting filled up fast on the first day.
At the end of day one, all seats in electronics and communication, mechanical and computer science branches in RVCE were taken, said Chief Executive of COMEDK A.S. Srikanth.
Students and parents were visibly upset with the delay in the counselling by the KEA and subsequent allotment of government quota seats that charges lower fees. However, their anxiety seemed much less than the medical aspirants as 17,930 engineering seats were available in the COMEDK quota.
Shailaja R., parent of Abhishek B., an engineering seat aspirant said, “This year, in the first round of COMEDK counselling, several seats have already been filled up as most people are opting for COMEDK seats in the first round as the KEA is yet to begin allotment. My son wanted a seat in RVCE and although he got a COMEDK rank below thousand, he did not get the seat as people have turned out in large numbers for counselling. We are hoping that he gets a seat in RVCE in the second round.”
Taking no risk
Suman Husmane, an engineering seat aspirant, said a large number of students came for COMEDK counselling as a “backup plan”. “Although obtaining an engineering seat under CET is my first priority, I am here as I do not want to take any risk. If I get a KEA seat, I will surrender COMEDK seat.”
Delay in counselling
The counselling session, which was supposed to get over by 5.15 p.m., stretched on. A student on the condition of anonymity said, “We appreciate every other arrangement made for the counselling except the allotted slots. My turn has overshot two hours and I am still waiting here.” On Saturday, the first round of counselling for students who have obtained ranks between 2551 and 5100 will be conducted in six sessions.
