'Colleges still having vacant seats can reapply'

Kolkata: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee said on Monday that the colleges under Calcutta University that still have vacant seats can again apply for filling them up through the university. It may be mentioned that still a number of seats under the CU is lying vacant even as the extended date for admission elapsed on Monday.

The minister on July 17 had extended the deadline of admission of Calcutta University-affiliated colleges till August 20 after nearly 40,000 seats were found to be vacant. Chatterjee said: "Our department will acknowledge fresh admissions on the part of the colleges if they apply through the university." He reiterated that the colleges should not admit students more than its intake capacity and admission should be strictly on the basis of merit.

It may be mentioned that the first phase of admission was from June 21 to July 6 and the second extended phase ended on Monday.

According to sources in CU, Maharaja Manindra Chandra College that has a total of 1,600 seats in different streams still has 400 vacant seats. Jaipuria has 700 seats left out of a total of 2000 seats, while Surendranath College has 85 vacant seats out of 3,000. Even Lady Brabourne College has 80 seats vacant out of a total of 550 seats.

It may be mentioned that there are a total of 1.3 lakh seats in various Calcutta University-affiliated colleges. After the first round of admission, seats were lying vacant at Surendranath College, Jaipuria College, South City College, Dinabandhu Andrews College, Sris Chandra College, North City College, Seth Surajmal Jalan College etc to name a few and the colleges had written to CU urging it to extend the dates for admission.

In the wake of alleged demand of money over student admission, state Higher Education department had instructed all colleges in the state to admit students through the online mode so that they no longer need to turn up physically for the purpose.

The police also cracked the whip and arrested a number of people including students for being involved in this unfair practice.