Many engineering seat aspirants are on a sticky wicket as the Consortium Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) counselling has kicked off before the Common Entrance Test (CET) seat allotment is completed. While the first round of online seat allotment for engineering courses through CET route is expected to be done on Friday, the offline seat allotment through COMEDK began on Monday.
A majority of the students prefer government and government quota seats in engineering colleges through CET as they cost nearly three times less than the COMEDK seats. The engineering fees for the 2018–19 academic year is ₹53,460 or ₹59,400 for government quota seats in private colleges. The fees for COMEDK quota seats in private colleges fall in two slabs — ₹1.3 lakh and ₹1.83 lakh.
Students feel they have been given short shrift. “Why can’t the State government and the COMEDK coordinate so that we don’t have to face stressful moments,” said a student. “It is unfair to us as the COMEDK counselling was held before CET [allotment].”
Students who have scored well are sitting out the COMEDK counselling. “We have chosen to take this risk as my son secured a seat in the college of his choice in the mock allotment announced by the Karnataka Examinations Authority on Monday,” one parent said.
Incidentally, the COMEDK counselling was put off six times as the State government and private engineering colleges were at loggerheads over the fee structure.
There are around 22,000 engineering seats in 142 colleges across the State that are up for grabs in the COMEDK counselling. S. Kumar, executive secretary, COMEDK, said the consortium had made a provision for students to surrender their seats online or mail their allotment letter through post. “Within seven days, the students will receive the refund, but we will charge ₹5,000 as processing fee,” he said.