Shooting down the State government’s request to lower the income limit for supernumerary quota (SNQ), which is reserved for families under the Rs 4.5 lakh per annum cap, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has clarified that there will be no change.
The SNQ was introduced by the AICTE last year, in which 5 per cent of seats in each engineering college and course are reserved for families with an annual income of less than `4.5 lakh per annum, and these seats are over and above the seat matrix. Minister for Higher Education R V Deshpande had expressed “strong reservation” about the eligibility criterion of the SNQ and said that he had asked the AICTE to lower the income limit. But AICTE chairperson S S Mantha told Express: “Rs 4.5 lakh is a national category for the creamy layer and we should stick to this.”
Mantha argues that if making any revision or reconsideration to this quota would violate the merit in that class. “The procedure is, every family whose income is less than `4.5 lakh would apply for this quota. Then, the admission authority makes a merit list in this category. Once a merit list is made, if there is any method to give priority to someone whose annual income is `2 lakh, then it definitely violates merit. We cannot create a clause within a clause,” he said.
If a candidate gets a SNQ seat, then the tuition fee prescribed by the government in that particular college will be waived off. The candidate has to pay the other fees only. As many as 4,819 SNQ engineering were seats available this year, of which only 69 are vacant. “These seats can be claimed by II PUC supplementary students who are eligible for seats through the Common Entrance Test,” said S P Kulkarni, administrative officer, KEA.
Out of 4,725 II PUC supplementary, candidates who were eligible for a special round of CET counselling, only 1,021 verified their original documents on Sunday. These candidates can enter their options till 9 pm on August 6. Out of 9,227 seats that remained after the end of the second extended round, as many as 8,983 engineering seats will be offered for allotment.
