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Latest News |
| 10th
July 2010 / Times of India / Mumbai Edition |
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Birth date must to block seat in IITs online
Mumbai: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have
redesigned their online counselling process and inserted
a security clause—a candidate who wishes to block
a seat will now have to fill in his/her date of birth
as well.
This was the first year when the IITs provided to general
category students the option of filling their choices
of course and institutes online. Students merely had to
type in their registration number to submit their preferences.
“However, many said that the online system was not
secure. Although the process was secure and we had other
means of verifying a student’s data, we decided
to insert a security clause in the form of date of birth,’’
said organising IIT-JEE 2010 chairman T S Natarajan.
The IITs have decided to continue online counselling next
year too. “The procedure saved aspirants and their
parents a lot of time and money. Earlier, students had
to visit the IIT closest to their hometown,’’
added a JEE chairman.
The IITs, IT-BHU as well as ISM-Dhanbad have declared
that 412 seats are vacant for their preparatory course.
“Most seats that have not been filled are from the
Scheduled Tribe category. Also, a lot of seats meant for
the physically challenged are also lying vacant,”
said an IIT faculty member. Seats reserved for the physically
challenged, JEE staff members fear, may not get filled.
Last year too, nearly 200 seats reserved for them were
left vacant.
The IITs had then mooted a proposal that they be allowed
to transfer the vacant PD seats to the general category
pool. “But we hit a wall. Then we have not pursued
the case further,” said an IIT director.
Filling up the PD seats has been a challenge. In 2008,
the 13 IITs managed to fill just 20 of the 200-odd PD
seats.
Since the last year, the IITs started allowing students
with lower scores to attend the oneyear preparatory course,
a bridge course in which faculty ready students for the
IITs.
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