A proposal to reduce the number of seats in the engineering colleges in the State by 460 seats from the coming academic year was under the examination of the Government taking into consideration the growing unemployment among engineering graduates, said Mr. V.R. Nedunchezhian, Education Minister in the Assembly today [March 21, Madras]. He was making a statement in response to a call attention notice by Mr. S. Ramachandran (D.M.K.). The Minister said that the Union Education Minister had in a letter addressed to the Chief Minister in February, suggested reduction of the strength in the engineering colleges stating that the total strength in all engineering colleges would be reduced from 26,000 to 15,000 or 16,000 seats. The Union Minister had also asked the State Government to consider the question of a cut by about 30 per cent in the total seats. The Minister expressed the view that the situation in this State did not warrant such a reduction. He said the Government proposed to consider abolition of the three-year degree engineering course by which 260 students were taken annually. It would consider reducing the number of seats in the five-year course for P.U.C. students by 200 seats from the present strength of 1,400 seats. The authorities of the M.I.T., A.C. College and the regional institutions had been advised to reduce their respective strength of the annual in-take from the coming academic year.
