Bhubaneswar, March 28: Technical colleges in the state seeking affiliation or its renewal will be required to apply to the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT).

The decision comes in the wake of the Supreme Court order debarring the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) from regulating technical educational institutes.

This was discussed at a meeting of government officials, chaired by chief secretary J.K. Mohapatra.

“The BPUT is gearing up for its new role. A public notice with details of norms and requirements for the process will be released in a day or two. The new rules will be applicable to all engineering colleges, management institutes and other technical institutions providing degree and post graduate programmes in the state,” said BPUT registrar Mihir Nayak.

In April 2013, the Supreme Court had debarred the AICTE from regulating technical educational institutions in order to ensure that existing technical colleges affiliated to universities do not compromise with the quality of education.

Under the new regulations, all technical institutes need to be affiliated to UGC-recognised universities.

Registrations for OJEE and the JEE (Mains) are over and exams are scheduled on May 11 and April 6, respectively. Admissions are all set to begin in June.

“The process will start this week with invitation of applications from colleges. The entire exercise will be over in two months before the JEE counselling begins,” said Nayak.

The BPUT will follow the UGC’s guidelines issued last year for the approval of colleges offering technical education. The UGC website (www.ugc.ac.in) clearly defines every aspect involved in managing a technical institution.

“A scrutiny committee constituted by the BPUT will examine the applications,” the registrar said. Looking at the limited manpower, the BPUT has decided to contact its constituent colleges for additional manpower support for the task. The technical colleges in Bhubaneswar are, however, confused over the move to be transferred from AICTE control to UGC.

“It is a good decision. It makes it easier for the technical colleges, but we doubt if the BPUT is in a position to handle the task,” said Binod Dash, secretary of Odisha Private Engineering Colleges’ Association.

“When the university is not able to hold examinations and announce results in time, how can we expect it to handle the affiliation process,” he asked.

Though many colleges appeared happy over AICTE being stripped off its regulatory status, they were not sure whether the BPUT would be able to handle it.

Dash said that giving absolute powers to the state universities was a “dangerous move” and there was a possibility of colleges getting exploited and the powers being misused.

Pramod Satpathy, chairman of a management college, said that the decisions for approvals of new colleges by the universities could be politically influenced. BPUT authorities, however, ruled out such assumptions.

“For institutions who follow the norms and systems, it will not make a difference if the regulatory authority was the AICTE or the UGC as they will always maintain standards and quality, “said Nayak.