Andhra Pradesh students may lose Telangana State NIT seats

Hyderabad: Students from Telangana state will benefit and those from Andhra Pradesh will be at an immediate loss if a National Institute of Technology is set up in Andhra Pradesh. This curious reversal of fortunes will be because of the home state quota that all NITs have.

The Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB), which conducts JEE Main counselling, has said that students from both AP and TS will get seats in NIT Warangal under the 50 per cent home quota until the NIT in AP starts functioning. However, the AP government has been insisting that the NIT will start functioning there from the coming academic year itself. 

NIT Warangal has 740 seats across all branches and it used to cater to united Andhra Pradesh as its home NIT. As per norms, 340 seats were reserved for students from the present TS and AP. But after the state split, all the 340 seats in the home quota should go to Telangana students.

Prof. D.V.L.N. Somaya-julu, dean of academics, NIT Warangal, said, “We have not received any communication from the CSAB about alterations in the home quota. Unless they write to us, the existing arrangement will continue.”

When asked, Prof. U.S. Triar, coordinator of CSAB and head of the electrical engineering department, NIT Patna, said, “As a policy, the existing quota in NIT Warangal will continue for both states and students from both states can get seats under the home quota.”

But that is only until the NIT in AP comes up. The AP government is insisting that the NIT will commence classes from the 2015-16 academic year itself. But if that happens, and there is a functional NIT in AP, the students of the state will lose the privileges in NIT Warangal. 

“As and when there is a new NIT set up in AP, each state will get home quota in its own NIT,” Prof Triar said. And worse, because it will be a new and infant NIT, the total number of seats will only be about 100. Which means in home quota, these will be just about 50 seats as against 340 seats in NIT Warangal. However, It still remains to be seen whether AP will be able to commence the session  in the upcoming academic year.