Over 80 per cent of the applications for starting new technical institutions, including engineering, management and polytechnics, have been rejected for failing to obtain building approval from the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), as required by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), said Prof. Mannar Jawahar, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University.
After the scrutiny of original documents submitted to the AICTE for approval to start the colleges by over 80 trusts and societies in the State from this academic year, he said most of them possessed proper land documents, but had no building approval from the DTCP. Of them, 43 applications were for new engineering colleges, 23 for polytechnics, 11 for management institutions, five for integrated campuses and the rest for MCA and pharmacy colleges.
The trusts/societies could re-apply after receiving approvals from the DTCP, but the speed of the process would depend on the relaxation of the model code of conduct by the Election Commission of India (ECI), said government sources.
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It would still be possible to obtain approval and affiliation to be part of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA 2011), expected to begin by July first week, said Prof. Jawahar, who is also AICTE's southern regional chairman. After the trusts get DTCP approval, the number of expert teams to personally inspect the campuses could be increased to speed up the process, he added.
Over 2 lakh seats
The number of seats this academic year in the engineering stream will easily cross 2-lakh mark with the addition of seats in the new engineering colleges and with the AICTE receiving over 500 applications for additional courses and increase in seats.
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With 486 engineering colleges, last year's intake in engineering was 1.9 lakh of which 1.30 lakh were admitted through counselling and the rest through management quota. The last two years had witnessed an increase of about 30,000 seats a year in the State which tops the country in the number of graduates studying engineering.
Applications in May
As the government plans to publish the Plus 2 results in the middle of May, TNEA officials say the application forms would be issued for 15 days with May 31 likely to be the final date for submission of filled-in application forms. After verification of mark sheets by the candidates which could take about 20 days, the rank list would be published. As medical counselling was expected to be held in the last week of June, counselling for the TNEA would begin in July first week. There would be eight sessions of 90 minutes each between 7.30 am and 7.30 pm on all days of counselling which could last close to 40 days, officials said.