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Although JoSAA has completed six rounds of counseling, about 5,000 seats still remain vacant in IITs, NITs and IIITs. Aspirants are in a fix as the remaining seats will be filled by the HRD ministry on the basis of a 'Spot round' to ensure that deserving candidates who cleared the entrance test to get seats in these premier institutions.
Parents and students awaiting seat allocation process said that despite their pleas, the MHRD has not responded and is delaying admissions to the vacant seats. The issue is becoming graver as they delay in seat allocation will only hamper the future of engineering aspirants.
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On the establishment of JoSAA in 2015, it was made clear that Spot Round will not be was conducted. However, MHRD asked the instructed Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) 2015 to device a way to allocate over 3000 plus vacant seats in 2015 and the Special Round was conducted for the same.
According to the official website of JoSAA, 2,332 seats remain vacant in IITs, IIITs and NITs, however, sources revealed that vacancies are three times this number.
Abhinav Basu, an engineering aspirant who cleared JEE (Main), said that JoSAA is yet to release the updated list of the number of vacant seats as the current list only shows the vacant seats after the acceptance based on the six round. However, many students didn’t show up for reporting round and many withdrew admissions after the announcements of NEET results, he added.
Kamlabh Kumar Singh, Assistant Registrar (Academic), NIT-K, Surathkal also informed that as per the JoSAA, the number of vacant seats in the institute is 28 but in reality, 80 seats still remain vacant in NIT Surathkal and MHRD has been notified of the situation and asked to conduct a final round.
Similarly, vacant seats in NIT Silchar are 17 instead of 63 whereas there are 42 seats vacant in Trichy NIT as opposed to the number mentioned don the website.
After the announcement of NEET results, many students enrolled in IITs, IIITs and NITs are expected to leave in order to appear for counseling conducted for admissions to medical and dental colleges.
A senior faculty member from NIT also stated that if the government does not take action then some NITs in northern India will have zero students as they will all migrate to IIT and IIITs.
Students spend two to three years preparing for engineering entrance exams. They are also anxious that they will have to appear for the exam again in 2016 and lose a year if the seats are not properly allocated.
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There are students like Vishal Choudhary who hails from Andaman and Nicobar Islands where there are no coaching classes available and they have to depend on self-studies in order to clear the entrance exams. For such students, wasting one year is a huge loss of time and confidence.
The HRD ministry will not be conducting a spot round accounting the recommendations made by JoSAA but refused to reveal any plans regarding the seat allotment strategy.
