LUCKNOW: About two dozen colleges affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) face closure for dearth of candidates.
More than 42,000 seats in various streams are vacant after counselling for the year 2009-2010 following the joint entrance test conducted by the university.
The worst hit are new colleges which do not have proper infrastructure and hence candidates have given them a miss.
Sources in the university said that the figure of unfilled seats in 2008 had stood at around 19,000 and the steep rise in vacant seats now can be attributed to recession and rise in the number of colleges by around 180. They said that there had been a number of colleges which were opened without proper infrastructure, campus, lab and faculty, especially in remote areas and they are the ones which face dearth of candidates. Among the streams which are least preferred by the candidates are B Pharm and B Tech in instrumentation and chemical engineering.