According to the RTI filed through an applicant, Chandrashekhar Gaur, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) left 2500 seats vacant under its all-India quota in the last four years including the seats offered through the entrance examination, conducted in December 2018. The ICAR is responsible for coordinating agriculture education in the country, headed under the Ministry of Agriculture. It is also responsible for conducting All India Entrance Exam for Agriculture (AIEEA) for securing admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses into 80 government institutes across the country.
The Entrance is conducted for providing admission to 15% of undergraduate and 25% of postgraduate seats, leaving those where the council reserves 100% seats.
After the RTI filed through an applicant, revealed 1,095 seats were left vacant for the PG courses and 1,463 for the UG courses during these years.
With the revelations being conducted, it was also found that the Council is yet to refund the admission fees, expected to be millions, that was collected from the students during the counseling conducted by them.
In 2018, for 1,954 UG seats across India, 25,246 candidates registered for counseling after paying Rs 2,000 each.
According to the RTI reply, received on December 10, 2018, revealed that the ICAR is yet to refund Rs 4,52,34000 to the candidates who could not be given admission. The amount to be refunded to PG candidates (9,447) is Rs 1,31,36000.
The Applicant reported this procedure to be wastefulness conducted by the government.
“There were thousands of eligible candidates who could have taken admission. But the ICAR left the job of filling these seats to the states, which could not care less,” Gaur told IANS.
The ICAR also reported that in case the seats are not filled, even after the counseling of the students is done, then the job of filling the seats over will be passed on the university.
“The ICAR quota seats after the final round of online counseling, if vacant, shall automatically stand released to the agricultural university concerned for filling up at their level and as per the procedure in vogue at the respective university. These seats will no more be called as ICAR seats and will be treated as university seats.
“Once the counseling/admission process is over, filling up of any subsequent vacancies created due to any reason shall not be the responsibility of ICAR. No correspondence in this regard will be entertained, either from the universities or from any candidate,” the bulletin said.
He also blamed the council for not their job effectively, he says that if the council conducts counseling for so many students, it shall hold the responsibility of filling the seats too.
“There should ideally be a mopping-up round after the counseling. And if any seat still remains vacant, it should be filled through spot counseling. They can’t wash their hands off it like this,” he said.
The ICAR also states it’s objectives to be “inbreeding in agricultural education by encouraging mobility amongst students outside their home state”, which means that the student’s priority is inclined towards the entrance test conducted by the council, as the council gives them the opportunity to travel to other states.