76 students for 639 seats at college that houses new PTU

BATHINDA: This 28-year-old college in Punjab is where a new version of the state technical university took roots three years ago, but this year only 76 students have taken admission in the BTech course here against 639 available seats in various streams of engineering.

This is the state of Giani Zail Singh Campus College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCCET), Bathinda, which is now a constituent college of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU). The ‘original’, Kapurthala-headquartered Inder Kumar Gujral-PTU (IRSPTU) conducted two sessions of centralised counselling for all colleges.

Sources at the university said students who got negative marks in the IIT-JEE have taken admission in the college. Charanjit Channi, the state’s minister for technical education and industrial training, recently visited the Bathinda university and promised the best facilities.

The MRSPTU began its own counselling on Monday to fill the remaining seats. This also means that students who paid Rs 2,000 for the centralised counselling will now have to shell out another Rs 2,000 for the the counselling meant for GZSCCET.

A faculty member said on the condition of anonymity, “Due to utter neglect of the administrative staff and other stakeholders, the college is merely distributing degrees that can’t provide jobs.”

OWN SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME

MRSPTU has been on its own path on other matters too. Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh recently announced the CM Scholarship Scheme under which students who scored 90% or above in Class 12 can avail scholarship at government polytechnics and engineering colleges, the MRSPTU and the IKGPTU.

However, MRSPTU has decided to follow its own criteria for scholarships rather than the one advertised by the ministry of technical education. The website of MRSPTU under the head ‘CM Scholarship Scheme’ lists the JEE rank as criterion. It says that students who are ranked in the top 50,000 in the JEE will get full waiver of tuition fee and development fee. Those ranked between rank 50,000 and 1 lakh will get waiver of only the tuition fee; and those between ranks 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh will get scholarship equivalent to half the tuition fee.

Gursharan Singh, dean, academics, MRSPTU, said he could not comment on the advertisement given by the ministry and the university has provided information on scheme on the website.

STUDENTS WHO GOT NEGATIVE MARKS IN THE IITJEE HAVE TAKEN ADMISSION AT THE COLLEGE, IT HAS BEEN LEARNT