Admission fees parity recommendation rejected

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BHUBANESWAR: The State Government rejected several recommendations of the policy planning body (PPB) including the demand for a parity in the admission fees for both private and government engineering colleges. Faced with a large number of vacant seats, the Orissa Private Engineering Colleges Association (OPECA) requested the Government to remove the disparity in the  admission fee for Government and private institutions and allow a single fee structure. Last year, the admission fee for Government engineering colleges was fixed at ` 16,000 while it was Rs 30,000 for private colleges. Alleging that dual fee structure is creating confusion among students and resulting in large-scale vacancies in the private engineering colleges, OPECA made a representation to the policy planning body (PPB), a Government body regulating admission into professional colleges, requesting for parity in the fee structure for the 2012-13 academic session.  The PPB which met last week recommended to the Government to accept the demand of OPECA. However, this was rejected by Industries Minister Raghunath Mohanty. The last year practice of depositing part admission fees to the tune of ` 30,000 for admission to private institutions reduced the non-reporting cases substantially, the Minister said with a direction to continue the same structure for the next academic session. The Minister further rejected the recommendation of the PPB to increase the seats reserved for NRI students from five to 15 per cent of the approved intake capacity with permission to the private technical colleges to charge four times of the tuition fees as per the Orissa Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2007. When the matter is sub judice, it may not be appropriate to take a decision on the issue, the Minister said. On the recommendation of the PPB last year, the State Government slashed reservation for NRI students from 15 to 5 per cent as per the new guideline of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). This was challenged by OPECA in the Orissa High Court. A similar case filed by the Orissa Private Engineering Schools Association (OPESA) is also pending in the HC. To the PPB recommendation for reservation of 25 per cent of the total seats for outside students, the Government said a merit list of the outside students will be released keeping in view the proportionate quantum of applications received subject to a maximum of 25 per cent of seats meant for general category. This is necessary to safeguard the interests of the Odisha students. The Government also rejected the recommendation of the PPB for lateral entry of outside students in engineering courses.