TN: 5% engg seats for the poor from next year

COIMBATORE: Students belonging to economically weaker and lower middle class sections will get to study in top engineering colleges from academic year 2012-13, with the AICTE mandating the implementation of the flagship Tuition Fee Waiver Scheme.Five per cent seats of the total sanctioned students’ intake in undergraduate degree and diploma (both UG and PG) courses in each technical institution would be reserved for such students. “The seats under this scheme would be supernumerary in nature (i.e. additional seats created over and above the sanctioned strength) and the beneficiaries would include children of parents whose annual income from all sources does not exceed Rs 4.5 lakh,” a senior AICTE official said.AICTE Member Secretary K P Isaac, who was in Coimbatore on Friday to address representatives of engineering colleges, urged institutions to admit students under the scheme from 2012-13.