Bhubaneswar, July 8: Private engineering colleges in the state today alleged that their government counterparts were adopting "illegal" means to "compete" with them.

The Odisha Private Engineering College Association (Opeca) contends that the 1,550 new BTech seats and 779 MTech seats do not have the required AICTE approval and said it intended to move the court to stop this "illegal practice" of the state government.

While the 85 private engineering colleges in the state have more than 40,500 seats, the seven government-run institutes have 3,500 seats.

The seats in seven government colleges and two universities of the state - College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Sarang, Government College, Kalahandi, Government Engineering College, Keonjhar, Parla Maharaj Engineering College, Berhampur, Institute of Management and Information, Cuttack, College of IT and Management Education, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology and Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela - have been increased this year.

Opeca Secretary Binod Dash said by admitting students against unapproved seats, the government was playing with the careers of the students. "The students who enrol in these seats will face problems in getting GATE scholarship, while appearing the UPSC and OPSC exams and applying for government jobs," said Dash, adding that the government was misguiding the students.

He cited the report of the comptroller and auditor-general, 2015, to substantiate the Opeca's claim that government colleges did not have the adequate infrastructure. "How are they going to provide quality education to these students?" said Dash.

The Opeca also alleged that Sambalpur University had advertised for admission to the first year BTech course on the basis of Plus Two marks, which is illegal and against the AICTE norms that says admissions should made through entrance exams.

Hrushikesh Patnaik, a government college faculty, said: "These allegations sound like a joke. It is a clear case of insecurity of losing 1,500 students - probably about Rs 100 crore - for these private colleges. Infrastructure revamp is going on at a huge scale in almost all the government colleges with funds made available under Rashtriya Ucchatar Siksha Ahiyan. Therefore, the AICTE approval will not be a problem at all. Government colleges may be low on infrastructure but our teachers and lab assistants are not forced to go out to villages and suburbs to lure gullible students with false promises of big jobs."

Technical education secretary L.N. Gupta said he had no information about the allegations. "Unless I know what exactly they have to say about the seats, I cannot make any comments," said Gupta.