Engineering counselling for reserved categories begins

As the Higher Education Department had introduced a horizontal reservation of 7.5 per cent in professional courses for the students who studied in state-run schools, 15,161 eligible students, who had studied in the government schools from Class 6 to Class 12 continuously and have appeared in the rank list participated.

In addition, differently-abled students, ward of ex-servicemen and eminent sportsperson, who also falls under the special category, will be participating in the counselling, which will be conducted till September 24 as per the tentative schedule released by the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE).

A senior official from DOTE told DT Next that as many as 15,161 government school students will be competing in the counselling to get their horizontal reservation quota according to the merit list. “Of the total, 11,390 could avail the quota,” he said adding “however, since only 1,39,033 have applied against the available engineering seats of 1,51,870 in 440 colleges, all the students in government schools will get their chance.”

Similarly, the official said 20 differently-abled students, who were enrolled and studied in government schools, will also get engineering seats.

Stating that this year the counselling will be held in five phases, he said, counselling for students falling in the general category will begin from September 27 to October 17. “After completion of counselling for general category students, the supplementary counselling will start from October 19 to October 23,” he said.