Bengaluru: As many as 351 students who attended the third round of counselling for the Common Entrance Test (CET) but failed to join colleges will be issued showcause notices by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA). It has also recommended to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) that engineering colleges should not admit these students under any other quota.As per the rules of the seat-selection process, if a govt seat is not filled in the third or final round, it will go back to the respective colleges to be filled by the college management. Since this is a common route for seat-blocking activities, the govt has imposed a fine which is five times that of the respective college fees. This could amount to around Rs 6 lakh. Despite repeated warnings from KEA, 351 students failed to join the colleges before the deadline, which was 5.30pm on Sept 14. With this, the seats will go back to the management.“We’ve been calling up the students to find out why they failed to join. Some said they already took admission under Comed-K or management quota. This is unfair, as those admissions were completed earlier. If they knew another seat was confirmed, why did they take part in the third round of counselling? The CET seat will not go to a deserving candidate now,” said H Prasanna, executive director of KEA, adding that any further action will be taken based on the response of the students.“We have therefore written to VTU that such students should not be admitted in those quotas as well,” he added. “In case any request comes from colleges for their admission approval, it should not be considered,” read his letter to VTU. Prasanna, however, pointed out that the number of such students was over 2,500 last year, and it has dropped to 351 this time following rigorous awareness sessions. No conversion of seatsMeanwhile, BMS College of Engineering, which was in the eye of the seat-blocking storm last year, has decided not to convert unfilled seats to management seats this year.“Though none from our college was involved in the seat-blocking controversy last year, we were dragged into it. So we have decided that even if the college undergoes a loss, we will not fill up those seats as we don’t want to get involved in the allegations. The management has decided not to fill up such seats. We have written to Comed-K, KEA, and other authorities not to return the unfilled seats to us. Instead, we have suggested they conduct more rounds to fill up the seats,” said Venkata Prasad, deputy director, administration of the college.
