Siliguri, Aug. 17: Authorities of colleges in Siliguri have decided to ask North Bengal University to allow an increase of seats in their institutes to accommodate candidates who are yet to obtain admission to undergraduate courses.

After a meeting with principals of all the five colleges here and students’ representatives, Siliguri subdivisional officer Bidyut Bhattacharya today asked the principals to evaluate the vacancy in each college, where these students can be accommodated. The assessment will show how many more seats will be required and the colleges will jointly ask the NBU to increase the number of seats.

“At the meeting it has been decided that we would first compare the admission lists of all the colleges,” Malay Karanjai, the principal of Siliguri College, said. “Sometimes a student applies in more than one college and after getting through one of them, he drops out of the others. These names will be identified and struck off the list. In the resulting vacancies, we will accommodate those who have not been able to get admission anywhere.”

“We will appeal to the NBU authorities, asking them to relax some rules for the interest of students,” Karanjai said. “We have decided to distribute the vacant seats equally among all the colleges, provided we get the permission from the university.”

More than 300 students reportedly could not get admission to the BA, BSc and BCom courses because the number of applicants far outnumbered the seats available. Though such a situation is an annual affair in Siliguri, where a large number of students from outside, especially the hills come in, this year, the pressure is reportedly much higher than before. The SFI had even called a strike on Monday, demanding that steps be taken to accommodate the candidates who have not got through any college. The college principals, too, reportedly wrote to the SDO, seeking his intervention.

Sudip Roy Choudhury, the district vice-president of the SFI, said: We hope that the university will give its nod to increase the number of seats in the colleges so that all students get a chance to pursue higher education.”