State approval a must for technical colleges

The state government will have the final say in granting approvals for the setting up of new technical education colleges from this year. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has made a “no objection certificate” (NOC), issued by the state government, mandatory to set up new engineering, pharmacy, MBA, MCA and M. Tech colleges.
Unless the state government issues the NOC, the AICTE will not process the applications to set up new colleges this year.
The AICTE has been indiscriminately sanctioning technical education colleges in the state for nearly a decade without obtaining the consent of the state government; the government was forced to give its nod later.
Several colleges managed to get an AICTE approval without adhering to the minimum requirements for faculty and infrastructure, thanks to the corruption in the system.
AP has the most number of technical education colleges in the country. Its 645 engineering colleges offer nearly 2.50 lakh seats. Countrywide there are 10 lakh seats, which means one in every four seats is in AP.
For the last two years the government has demanded that the AICTE stop approving new colleges in the state since there are enough colleges and it was time to focus on quality rather than quantity.