128 engineering colleges shut down in three years, more in Telangana

mangaloretoday.com/ yahoo

New Delhi, Dec 06: The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has closed 128 engineering colleges across the country since 2016, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Answering a question raised in Parliament, Pokhriyal informed that in the academic year 2018-19, a total of 26 engineering colleges have been closed. The number has declined from 55 in 2016-17 and 47 in 2017-18.

Among the states, most colleges were closed in Uttar Pradesh (5) in the present year, followed by Rajasthan (4). In these three years, most colleges were shut in Telangana (26).

As reported by the indianexpress.com earlier, over 37 lakh engineering seats are available across the country at 10,361 institutions. Of these, students have been admitted to only 10 lakh seats while the rest remain vacant. In 2017, AICTE announced to shut down, colleges which have not filled more than 30 per cent of the total seats over the last five years.

An expert panel had advised AICTE to stop setting up new colleges from 2020 and review the creation of new capacity every two years subsequently. The HRD Minister also informed the House that there is no proposal to set up new engineering colleges in India.