27,000 more seats for engineering colleges

HYDERABAD: More than 27,000 new seats including 2,100 seats in seven new colleges will be added to the engineering stream in addition to the existing 2.7 lakh seats in the state this year.Similarly, the number of seats in the medicine stream is also expected to increase by 150 after the Medical Council of India (MCI) sanctioned permission for setting up a new government medical college and also additional seats in a private medical college in the state.Announcing the final ranks here on Friday, deputy chief minister C Damodara Rajanarasimha told newsmen that there are about 2.7 lakh seats in 707 engineering colleges in the state. The All- India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) recently gave permission for setting up of seven new engineering colleges having 2,100 seats apart from permitting about 25,000 additional seats in the existing colleges. Hence, about three lakh engineering seats are up for grabs against only 2.07 lakh eligible candidates for admission into these colleges. Officials expect that at least 80,000 seats will remain vacant after admissions into the engineering colleges.The Eamcet 2011 organising committee chairman and JNTU-Hyderabad vicechancellor DN Reddy said about 20 colleges which are either facing CBI cases or have cases pending in the court against them, will not be considered for engineering counselling scheduled in the third or fourth week of July.Thus, about 4,500 seats from these colleges will not be available during counselling.He said there would be no change in the fee structure and classes would commence from August 16.Meanwhile, the number of medical seats are likely to be increased by about 150 from the existing 6,800 seats for MBBS and BDS courses following permission for a new government medical college with 100 seats at Ongole and 50 additional seats in a private medical college in Guntur.In addition, there are about 4,000 seats in agriculture course.