About 80 seats are vacant in NIT-K Surathkal: Official

BENGALURU: About 3,000 undergraduate seats are lying vacant in 31 National Institutes of Technology this year, but the human resources ministry is yet to decide on conducting `spot rounds' to fill up these vacancies.
The Joint Seat Allocation Authority conducted six rounds of counselling to pick students for the premier technology institutes this year.The seats which still remain vacant after this counselling are awarded through complicated `spot rounds', which were held until 2014 to similarly choose students for NITs.
Many candidates and parents have urged the HRD ministry to start `spot rounds'.The ministry cited a court injunction from going ahead with this round.
The seat-allocation authority data for 2016 says 1,518 of the total 18,013 NIT seats were vacant this year.
Curiously , the number of vacant seats in most NITs has increased as a good number of candidates have not taken up admission after the sixth round of counselling or have quit course after NEET results were declared. For example, the seat-allocation authority statistics puts the number of seat vacancies at NIT-Slichar at 24, but documents with TOI say it's 53.
Likewise, it identifies the vacancies at NIT-K Surathkal at only 28. Currently , the number of vacant seats is about 80. We have writ ten to the HRD ministry to allow spot or a final round to fill these seats,“ said Kamlabh Kumar Singh, assistant registrar (academics), NIT-K Surathkal.
Spot rounds were conducted till 2014. In 2015, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) was drafted. JoSAA ruled out spot rounds for 2015. So the ministry requested the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) 2015 to find a `feasible' way to fill up 3,000plus vacant seats. The Central Seat Allocation Board conducted the special round last year.
“The JoSAA hasn't come out with the updated list of final vacant seats.It has released the list of vacant seats after round six acceptances. But the admission process is considered completed only after physical reporting.Many students didn't go for reporting and have not taken up admission. Also many withdrew from colleges even after taking admission once NEET results were out,“ said Abhinav Basu, from Kolkata. He has passed JEE (Main) as well as IIT-JEE.
Priyam Shrivastava, an aspirant from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, said after NEET results were announced, students enrolled in NITs and engineering colleges were expected to join medical colleges.
A senior NIT faculty said if the government does not opt for the special round this year, some NITs in North India may have zero admissions since most students are migrating to IITs or IIITs. But a spot round to pick students for unfilled seats is fraught with risks.An NIT director said: “If a spot round is held, candidates admitted into lower rungs of engineering courses will try for other engineering streams. In the process, seats will fall vacant.“
Thousands of students who have toiled for 2-3 years to crack JEE Main and Advanced have to let go of anoth er year and also reappear for competitive exams next year. Bengalurubased Shruthi NV said: “It's risky to drop one more year even though we have a better chance of getting into these institutes. Above all, thousands seats are vacant and we are eligible to get one of them.“ Vishal Choudhary, an aspirant from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said since there are no coaching classes, he has to sit at home and prepare for the exams.