More opposition to the proposed common entrance test (CET) for admissions to engineering colleges,including the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) and National Institute of Technologies (NITs),is coming forth.Even as the union government rules out going back on the CET proposal,member of parliament Bhalchandra Mungekar while terming the situation arising out of the proposal as alarming questioned the need for implementing the proposal on war footing.In his letter to Kapil Sibal,minister for Human Resource Development,Mungekar suggested that the present system of admissions to the IITs should continue for the academic year 2012-13.
According to HRD sources,the former planning commission member who was responsible for the policy draft on higher education for the 11five-year plan and now a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha,Mungekar on June 13 wrote to Sibal saying, avoiding multiplicity of CETs and facilitating the entry of the poor into the IIT system are worth considering,they do not warrant an emergency decision to the extent that the IIT fraternity prepares to move the court against the MHRD and the MHRD,in turn,examines the legal status of the IIT senates and the Board of Governors.This scenario does not augur well.
The MHRD proposed a CET for admission to engineering colleges across the country.The proposal was to merge the IIT-Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE ) and All Indian Engineering Entrance Exam (conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education ) and also to take into account the performance of the aspirants during board exams at school level for admission to the various engineering courses.