Engineering admission begins amidst confusion

The centralised admission process (CAP) for the first year engineering courses began on Monday across the state with the distribution of the admission kits to nearly 2 lakh aspirants. However, state's Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), the competent authority for admission, is clueless about the number of seats available this year.

Moreover, the "composite score" formula which will decide the merit list based on which college or preferred course a candidate would get is also not disclosed to the candidates yet, as the file is stuck in Mantralaya, blocking the way in the issuance of related government resolution (GR). GR becomes mandatory in this case as for the first time state is conducting admission on the basis of National Level Test-JEE (main)-conducted by CBSE and standard XII score (physics, chemistry and maths marks) with 50-50% weightage.

Candidates expressed their unhappiness over callous approach of the authorities as they had rushed to over 272 ARCs across the state on Monday. "The DTE's notification published last week says that composite score formula would be disclosed later though no date has been given. On what basis does DTE plans to publish the merit list on July 5 is unclear, as well as the number of seats in each branch," said a candidate.

The DTE officials cite helplessness. "The list of colleges has been sent to the Higher and Technical Education Department. Until they approved the list, we would not be in a position to know the exact number of seats available. The composite score formula obtained from the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, has also been submitted to the department. They have to take a call in both the matters."
SK Mahajan, head of the DTE and minister Rajesh Tope, both were unavailable for comment.

Dateline
Sale of application kit at ARC (list of centres available at www.dtemaharashtra.gov.in): June 23 to July 2
Online filing of form at (www.dtemaharashtra.gov.in/fe2014) : June 23 to July3 (5 pm)
Document verification at ARCs: 23 June to July 3 (5pm)
Provisional merit list: July 5 (5pm)
Submission of grievance applications: July6 to 8 July (5 pm)
Display of Final Merit list on website: 9 July (5 pm)
Box: Number of seats available in 2013-14: 1.5 lakh (approx)