Errant technical colleges pulled up

Several prominent educational institutions in the city including Elphinstone College and PD Hinduja College have been pulled up by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for running technical programmes without approval.

Several prominent educational institutions in the city including Elphinstone College and PD Hinduja College have been pulled up by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for running technical programmes without approval.

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It is mandatory for colleges have to apply to the council before starting new courses. The AICTE has asked state governments to take action against institutes, which have been running technical programmes without approval.

“We have asked states to take appropriate action as deemed fit by them,” said SS Mantha, officiating chairman of the AICTE.

“We will have to look at each individual case. For example, other institutes like the Open University and not AICTE have approved some of these courses,” said S.K Mahajan, director of the Directorate of Technical Education, which supervises all such institutes.

“Once we determine the norms flouted we will submit individual reports to the state for action.”

There are about 134 institutes who are running courses without approval located in New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka among others.

Around 57 of these institutes are in the state and 26 of these are in Mumbai. The council has drawn up another list of 67 technical colleges that are running programmes win collaboration with foreign universities without AICTE approval. Out of these, 19 are in Maharashtra and 14 in Mumbai.

MNS protest

The Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS) demanded that the Directorate of Technical Education lodge a first information report against the 73 institutions in the state which have started admissions for unauthorised courses.

The MNS cadres met S.K. Mahajan, Director, DTE and demanded action against these institutions. “They should not be allowed to go Scot free after playing with the future of our students,” said Gajanan Kale, General Secretary, MNVS.