Confusion over the engineering fee persists with the recent Supreme Court directions but that has not deterred the top colleges to put their 30 per cent management quota seats on ‘sale' already.

Management quota seats in the top 20 to 30 colleges are now open and reportedly being offered in the range of Rs.8 lakh to Rs.12 lakh depending the college and the course.

The sought-after colleges are being approached by the prospective candidates and their parents and the deals are being struck, though discreetly. “There is no place for bargaining as the craze for these colleges is huge given their brand name and the placements,” says a student, who is interested in Computer Science. Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) continues to be the top priority followed by Computer Science Engineering (CSE) and Mechanical Engineering. Seats in these streams are at offer in the range of Rs.8 lakh to Rs.12 lakh, and the condition is that the fee has to be paid at one go.

Similar is the fee structure in the colleges considered to be in the top 10 in and around the city and where students with EAMCET ranks in the range of 500 to 2,000 opt for seats.

Fee is no less in other streams such as Civil and Electrical as students now are particular about the brand name given the societal respect. “Money is not an issue but a seat in my choice of college is,” said a student. Anyway, placement record of these colleges is pretty good irrespective of the branch.

But all is not well with other colleges. As the correspondent of an educational group says the colleges can be categories into three groups – those collecting an average fee of Rs.10 lakh per seat followed by those that offer the seats for the government decided fee of Rs.95,000 and even less. In the last category there are no takers though seats are offered at the Convenor fee of Rs.31,000.

About 30 colleges figure in the first category, 75 in the second category and rest in the third category. It means in 600-odd colleges there are hardly any takers.

The pitiable position of these colleges has forced the college managements to demand the government for filling up all the seats under the convenor quota. As per rule colleges have to notify the management admissions in newspapers, call for applications and admit on merit. To overcome this they adopt a simple strategy of first giving consent to the seat-seekers and take their applications once the process starts. While top colleges merrily fill their coffers others are hiring consultants, who sell the seats on commission basis.