Maharashtra govt to move HC for exempting engg colleges from CET

The Maharashtra government has decided to move the Bombay High Court to exempt engineering colleges from the Central Entrance Test (CET) for admissions. This is in the wake of the over 12,000 seats remaining unfilled in these collages.

Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde said: "The Cabinet has decided that with the exception of engineering colleges, admissions to all other professional courses such as Master of Business Administration and architecture courses would be through CET. In engineering colleges, considering the more than 12,000 seats that remain to be filled, we have sought permission for admissions based on students' marks in the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations. We will move the high court for permission to implement this decision."

For non-engineering colleges, the Cabinet has allocated 60 per cent of the seats under the state government quota (up from the existing 50 per cent), 20 per cent as management quota and the remaining 15 per cent for outstation students.

"The fee structure is yet to be decided by the court-appointed committee and its decision on course fees would be acceptable to the state government," Shinde added.

In another decision, the state government has decided to withhold its action taken report (ATR) on the Sardar Sarovar dam project for another four months, till all the project affected persons (PAPs) of the project are rehabilitated.

Shinde said: "We will not allow to raise the height of the dam to 110.64 metre till all those who are going to be displaced are rehabilitated. Maharashtra is expected to get a share in the power generated from the project. As such we are not opposed to the raising of the height of the dam. However, it would take another four months to rehabilitate the PAPs and hence we will submit our ATR to the Narmada Regulatory Authority only after four months."

Reiterating the state government's decision to subsidise the electricity dues of agriculturists in the wake of the drought situation in 11 districts, Shinde said the tariff rate of 74 paise per unit of power of farmers who had metered pump sets would be reduced to 50 paise per unit (low tension users) and 60 paise per unit for high tension users.

Similarly, for powerloom owners, the per unit tariff rate of Rs 1.86 and Rs 30 per horse power per month have been brought down to Re 1 per unit.

"These incentives are being given to agriculturists in order to inculcate a willingness to go in for metering of their power connections," Shinde said.