Karnataka minister: CET counselling will restart from July 7

Candidates aspiring for seats in undergraduate engineering courses through the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) can relax now. The KEA will re-start the counselling process from July 7.

State higher education minister Aravind Limbavali made the announcement after meeting the Union minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal and Union law minister Veerappa Moily in New Delhi on Thursday.

The counselling process has been stalled because the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is yet to announce the seat matrix for the state. Limbavali said the AICTE would give the seat matrix to KEA on June 28 or June 30. “I have informed the KEA officials to be prepared. Once we get the seat matrix, we will start counselling at all the five centres,” said Limbavali.

KEA officials said they would need at least five days to prepare the college-wise seat matrix after receiving details from the AICTE. “If we get the details by June 30, we can begin the counselling from July 7,” a KEA official said.

The KEA is planning to conduct counselling even on holidays in an attempt to stick to the original schedule. According to KEA officials, they can save at least 12 days by doing so. “We have lost 20 days because of the postponement of the counselling process,” SP Kulkarni, administrative officer, KEA, said. “We can make good the loss of 12 days by conducting counselling on holidays. If we do so, we can finish the process by September 10.”

As per the current schedule, the KEA has to finish the counselling session by August 31. The counselling was supposed to start on June 18. But it was postponed since the AICTE had not announced the intake for the colleges.