BHUBANESWAR: Infrastructure inadequacy in State Government-run technical colleges has led All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to refuse approval to new courses. As a result, future of students who have taken admission in the new courses hangs in balance.
“Courses offered by seven institutes having intake capacity of 1,214 students were not approved by AICTE due to deficiency in infrastructure, violation of norms for creation of additional courses and increase in intake capacity for existing courses,” the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on economic sector for the year ending March 2015 stated.
Two degree courses (BTech) with intake of 120 students and three master degree courses (MTech) having 54 students in Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology (IGIT), Sarang have not been approved by AICTE.
Similarly, MTech courses in 13 streams with intake capacity of 18 students each in College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar were not approved by the apex advisory body of the Central Government.
The CAG report further pointed out that Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) introduced MTech in 11 disciplines, including five courses in 2013-14 and six in 2014-15, with intake capacity of 18 each. The AICTE had not approved these courses by the end of March 2015.
In Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla, 60 seats each in Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Electronics and Telecommunication, Information Technology, Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy and Material Engineering (BTech) have not been recognised by the Central council.
Several degree and master degree courses offered by Parla Maharaja Engineering College (PMEC), Berhampur, Institute of Management and Information Technology (IMIT), Cuttack and Centre for IT and Management Education (CIME), Bhubaneswar were also not approved by AICTE.
“Conduct of non-approved courses may invite penal action from AICTE. Accreditation of courses by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is necessary for getting AICTE approval. However, none of the institutes had obtained NBA accreditation,” the audit report said.
While these institutes had not obtained AICTE approval till March, 2015, Government College of Engineering, Keonjhar applied for NBA accreditation, but failed to meet the required criteria.
As part of its long term expansion plan for technical institutes, the State Government formulated ‘Infrastructure development of Government technological universities and engineering colleges’ in 2013 and financial assistance of `300 crore was allocated during 2013-16.
The objective was to increase the student intake capacity from 3,017 in 2012-13 to 6,328 in 2016-17. Required infrastructure of these institutes could not be developed due to delay in release of funds and lack of monitoring of works by the Government.