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The Bengal Engineering and Science University campus
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Besu will not have any option but to admit students through the state JEE next year following delay in Parliamentary approval of the bill that would grant the Shibpur university the status of an Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST).
Bhaskar Gupta, the chairman of the joint entrance board, which has started preparation for next year’s test, scheduled for April 21, said: “We have not heard anything from the government about any switch in admission test pattern for Besu next year.”
Board officials were confident that Besu would admit students through the JEE next year. “If the university had decided otherwise, it would have informed us about the shift by now,” said an official.
State higher education minister Bratya Basu and Besu vice-chancellor Ajay Ray met on Friday to discuss the IIEST bill, a copy of which the Union ministry of human resource development sent to the state government recently, ahead of its proposed tabling in the winter session of Parliament.
The Union cabinet had cleared Besu’s upgrade in 2010. Once Parliament endorses the bill, the institute will have to admit students through the All India Engineering Entrance Examinations, conducted by the CBSE.
But there is doubt about the bill being tabled in the winter session of Parliament in the current political scenario. Even if it is tabled and passed, it would require presidential assent to be enacted and that can only be granted after the session. “CBSE will also have to start the process of bringing Besu into the fold. Since the board is preoccupied with preparations for next year’s exams, it would not be able to rush through the process. Hence Besu will not be able to admit students through AIEEE before 2013,” said an official of the higher education department.
Ray, however, said he was hopeful of admitting students through AIEEE next year. “We are expecting the bill to be passed in the winter session,” he said.
Basu had told Metro last week: “Besu’s upgrade to an IIEST and the resultant change in entrance test depends on the Centre’s formal approval.”
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