Low turnout for Eamcet certificate verification

HYDERABAD: Engineering courses seem to have lost their sheen. The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTU-H) has observed lower turnout for Eamcet certificate verification this year. While the process began on June 22, only 29,978 out of 46,000 rankers appeared for certificate verification until Sunday.
Officials attribute the low turnout to many aspirants exploring other options."Those below 10,000 rank vie for premier institutes such as IITs, NIT, BITS etc and do not turn up for Eamcet certification process. Many rankers below the 20,000 bracket also explore other degree courses and drop their plan of taking up engineering due to various reasons," said B Srinivas, Eamcet camp officer.
According to officials, those who can afford management seats also ditch engineering at times. "Those securing management seats often have ranks between 10,000 and 20,000. They wait to get the college and course of their choice and skip the certificate verification process," said Srinivas. Officials expect better turnout from candidates with ranks above 40,000.
The not-so-encouraging response to the certificate verification exercise is also being seen as an indication of many engineering seats going vacant this year. There is also a lack of clarity in the first phase of counselling as the university is yet to declare the final list of affiliated colleges. However, private engineering college representatives estimate that there would be nearly 75,000 seats up for grabs this year.
With the allotment of seats set to commence soon, the revised fee structure for the next three years is also likely to be released in a few days. The final allotment will be made on July 30 and classes are scheduled to begin from August 2.
A total of 1,33,428 candidates had appeared for the examination in the engineering stream on May 15, out of which 1,03,923 qualified for the verification process. In the medical and agriculture stream, 90,114 candidates had appeared, of which 75,681 had qualified.