Karnataka government suspects 2,348 engineering seats blocked; notice to students
A seat-blocking scam was suspected by the government in Karnataka after the KCET list was released. The government has issued notices to students who were allotted engineering seats but did not pay the fees, which could result in all such seats falling into the management quota.
KCET Karnataka Seat Blocking Scam
After the list was released by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) under the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) quota, as many as 2,348 seats were handed over to various colleges after all rounds of Karnataka Engineering Seat Allotment were completed. The seats under question belong to some top institutions such as BMS College of Engineering and New Horizon College of Engineering in Bengaluru where the seats under management quota for Computer Science and allied branches sold for Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh each.
According to the data, 33 Computer Science seats and 25 Artificial Intelligence seats were remaining at BMS College of Engineering, 17 at New Horizon College of Engineering and 11 at Akash Institute of Technology.
“Even I got complaints from several stakeholders and on verifying the list released by KEA, I was shocked to see seats remaining at some of the top colleges. Since this looks suspicious, we have issued notice to students who opted for seats but did not report to colleges. I will discuss with the higher education department and KEA officials about action to be taken against such colleges and students,” said Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar.
A similar situation was noticed with the COMEDK, where over 48 seats under the Computer Science branch were vacant at the BMS College of Engineering and 35 at the BMS Institute of Technology. COMEDK authorities wrote to the Admission Overseeing Committee for professional courses to conduct an inquiry. However, colleges denied seat blocking.
“We are yet to receive details from the authorities about the seats remaining. Once we get permission, we will consider students from the waiting list and allot them.”, said Dr. Manjunatha, principal of New Horizon College of Engineering.
According to a senior KEA official, the authority tried to reach out to students who had opted for the seats but did not join; but got no response.
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