HYDERABAD : The much-hyped online approval system of the All India Council for Technical Education, introduced from this year, has proved to be erratic and colleges were forced to provide voluminous data manually. The new system instead of speeding up the approval process has delayed things further.

Students and parents are concerned about giving their preferred colleges and courses in the web-based counselling.

The Centre introduced the online system for approvals for engineering, pharmacy, MBA and MCA colleges to check corruption and the role of middlemen after the CBI booked several top officials of the council on bribery charges last year.

Colleges were asked to submit online applications to renew their affiliation, increase intake of students and to launch new courses, which is an annual procedure.

AICTE had earlier announced that June 30 will be the cut-off date for approvals for this academic year. However, it is D still in the process of approving new colleges, leading to utter confu sion among offi cials in the higher education depart ment about initiat ing the admissions process.

 "We met the AICTE officials recently and made a specific request to stick to a cut-off d date to grant approvals as any deletions or additions e after that will alter s the entire counselling , process. They cono veyed to us that since the online system was e introduced for the first time this year, there were some operational problems, but these will be rectified. We hope to com plete the Eamcet admis sions by July and start classes from August 1 from , next year," said Mr Laxminarayana, com missioner of technical edu cation.

 AICTE has permitted `second shift' in 16 engineer ing col leges against the wish es of the state govern ment. The government has made it clear that it will not include second shift seats in Eamcet counselling. This has led to further delays in counselling.

Eamcet Facts

Eamcet was held on May 30 and Icet on May27.

Eamcet marks announced on June 16 and ranks on July21.

2.5 lakh qualified in Eamcet engineering and 1.6 lakh in Icet.

Admission delayed by over three months for B.E/B.Tech/MBA/MCA courses.

Web-based counselling failed to reduce the six-month gap between entrance and admissions.

AICTE's online approval system has delayed the approvals process.