Over 11K allocated engg seats in the first round : Ponmudy

CHENNAI: Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Friday said as the first round of counseling for the students seeking engineering admissions in Tamil Nadu was completed, seats were allocated to 11,595 candidates.

Stating that students who have secured cut-off marks between 200 and 184.5 had participated in the first round of counseling, the minister said seats have been allocated to 11,595 students.

"Of the 11,595 allocated seats, as many as 10,351 candidates have joined the colleges by paying the fees,” he added.

The minister also said of the 826 government school students, who have availed 7.5% reservation quota, have participated in the first round of counseling. "Of the total, who participated in the counseling, seats were allocated to 405 students,” he said.

Responding to issues faced by assistance professors in government colleges, Ponmudy said: "Jobs of 955 assistance professors in the state-run colleges will be regularised".

Recalling that the then AIADMK government had promised to regularise the jobs of assistance professors nine years back, "till they were in power, the promise has not been fulfilled".

He also said that as many as 41 colleges, which were affiliated with various state-run universities, will be taken over by the government. "Therefore, all the pending arrears of guest lecturers, who were working in these institutions, will be cleared,” he added.

Pointing out that there are about 5,000 assistant professor posts vacant in several government colleges, the minister said the government has issued an order to fill up 4,000 vacant posts with Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board will conduct the exams shortly in this regard.

"The vacancy in government polytechnic colleges will also be filled,” he said adding that appointment orders were ready to fill as many as 1,030 vacancy posts in various polytechnic institutions.