Tamil Nadu rejects engineering admission norms

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government, which has refused to abide by the admission norms set by the All India Council for Technical Education ( AICTE) for engineering courses, has decided to continue its own norms formulated last year.

The AICTE circular would make social justice philosophy meaningless, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Wednesday said in a statement.

He said the state government, in order to make available engineering course to all sections of the student community, had laid down the minimum qualifying marks as 50 per cent for general category, 45 per cent for backward classes, 40 per cent for most backward classes and 35 per cent for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

A recent AICTE circular had laid down minimum eligibility for general category students at 50 per cent and 45 per cent for all other categories.

Karunanidhi said following the AICTE norms would exclude students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tibes, backward classes and students from rural areas.

He also urged the AICTE to revoke its circular in the larger interests of the student community without citing that the education is under concurrent list of the Indian constitution.