AIEEE -08

The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has called a meeting of Technical Education Secretaries of States and Union Territories (UTs) on June 26 to address their concerns regarding a recent directive aimed at streamlining admissions to the ‘outside State quota seats’ in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). Recently, the Ministry had instructed the Central Counselling Board for the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination 2008 to fill the ‘outside State quota seats’ in the NITs on the basis of the all-India merit list of AIEEE instead of its State/UT specific ranks. This directive was issued in view of several instances of students with higher ranks being left out while those with lower marks were getting into the NITs through the ‘outside State quota’ route because of State/UT specific ranks.However, several States and UTs have expressed reservations about the new HRD directive, fearing that their students might not get as much representation in the NITs as they did in the past. Though the HRD Ministry’s contention is that the fall-out of the new system will be known only after the first round of counselling on July 13, the meeting has been called to address the apprehensions of such States and UTs in advance.FROM-HINDU