Following a directive from the Central Selection Committee, three engineering students from West Bengal were asked to leave Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Allahabad. The trio had taken admission at MNIT in August.

At the MNIT, 22 seats are allotted for students from West Bengal. The Centre on June 18 had taken away the three seats, meant for West Bengal, and allotted them to students from Uttarakhand. The three students from Bengal are Amit Gupta and Sandeep Shyamsukha from Pillkhana, in Howrah, and Pushan Poddar from Uttarpara.

Amit ranked 435th in the West Bengal joint entrance examination and took admission in electronics. Sandeep, who stood 1,130th, opted for mechanical engineering, while Pushan, who came 1,656th, took up civil engineering at MNIT.

Pushan’s father Partha Pratim Poddar, a surgeon with the state health services, said the trio was victim of a communication gap between the ministry of human resources development, the directorate of technical education, Regional Engineering College (REC), Durgapur, and MNIT, Allahabad.

According to Poddar, the director of REC, Allahabad, (now MNIT) on August 9, wrote to the principal of REC, Durgapur, that he was sending back the three students from West Bengal on the basis of the latest distribution of seats. The ministry of human resources development had reportedly issued the order on June 18.

Poddar alleged that Shaktipada Ghosh, principal of REC, Durgapur, was present at MNIT, Allahabad, on August 9 to get his daughter admitted, but did not take any initiative to bail the three students out of the crisis.

“If the ministry of human resources development issued the order on June 18, how could the admission committee at REC, Durgapur, direct the candidates to report at the Durgapur college on August 1?” demanded Poddar.

He added that the Durgapur REC authorities, after verifying the documents, issued a letter to MNIT, directing the candidates to report to the principal of the Allahabad college on August 7, 8 and 9. MNIT officials registered the students from Bengal for the current session and even provided them with hostel accommodation.

“The letter I received from the ministry of human resources development on June 11 did not mention any slash on the West Bengal quota at the MNIT,” said principal Ghosh.

“I came to know of the matter when I had gone to Allahabad to get my daughter admitted there,” he added. Ghosh said he had brought the matter to the notice of the principal secretary, higher education, on Wednesday. “The three students will be reinstated at RECs in Jamshedpur and Bhopal,” he added.

“The human resources ministry has informed its decision of seat redistribution at the MNIT to the state government and four other regional colleges, except REC, Durgapur,” said A. Basu, director, technical education.