Karnataka government suspects 2,348 engineering seats blocked; notice to students

Suspecting a seat-blocking scam, 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.

According to the list 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 colleges after completion of all the rounds of engineering seat allotment.

Interestingly, 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.

KEA officials, who tried to reach out to students who had opted for the seats but did not join, got no response, said a senior KEA official.

Data shows 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.

Speaking to DH, Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar said the issue has come to his notice.

“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 top colleges. Since this looks suspicious, we have issued notice to students who opted for seats but did not report to colleges,” said Sudhakar.

The minister said that after getting replies from students, the government will order an inquiry if necessary. 

“I will discuss with the higher education department and KEA officials about action to be taken against such colleges and students,” Sudhakar stated.

There was a similar situation at the COMEDK seat allotment where over 48 seats under the Computer Science branch were left vacant at BMS College of Engineering and 35 at BMS Institute of Technology.

However, suspecting seat blocking, COMEDK authorities wrote to the Admission Overseeing Committee for professional courses to conduct an inquiry. However, colleges denied seat blocking. Manjunth B, principal of New Horizon College of Engineering said, “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.”

Dr Bheemsha Arya, principal of BMSCE, said the institute has nothing to do with it and it is between the seat allotment authority and students.

“We have requested KEA to conduct another round or guide us on what to do,” he said.