HYDERABAD :Crisis-ridden engineering colleges demanded the state government to exempt students from qualifying in Eamcet to be eligible for admissions in merit quota (covenor) this year.

At a meeting organised by various engineering colleges associations on Friday, the managements were concerned over 80,000 seats going vacant in merit quota after the recent first phase of Eamcet counselling.

They said about 250 colleges will have to shut down if the government does not come to their rescue either by exempting Eamcet qualification or reducing the qualifying marks in the exam from the present 40 marks to 25 marks out of the total 160 marks.

However, differences cropped up among the managements over exempting Eamcet or reducing qualifying marks in the exam.

The colleges in which most of the seats were filled during counselling opposed the demand of relaxing the admission norms while those in semi-urban and rural areas, where few seats were filled, insisted on easing the admission norms.