In a bid to put an end to the stand-off between annual and semester scheme diploma students,with regard to distribution of seats for direct admission to engineering courses, the State government has increased the quota of seats for semester scheme students from 10 to 20 per cent.

We will now notify fresh seat matrices providing for 80 per cent seats to annual scheme students and 20 per cent seats to semester scheme students. However, the total number of engineering seats reserved for diploma students will remain the same, Higher Education Minister G Parameshwara told Deccan Herald .As many as 1,700 engineering seats are reserved for diploma students who will gain direct entry to the third semester engineering based on a rank-list prepared by the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell.

Earlier, the government had fixed the the quota of seats for semester scheme students at 10 per cent. However, this had led to resentment among the semester scheme students and had even resulted in postponement of the seat selection process at the CET Cell during the first week of August.Dr Parameshwara said that the seat selection process for diploma quota will now be held after September 23 following the completion of seat selection process for admissions to medical and dental courses at the CET Cell.

Of the 198 polytechnics in the State, as many as 189 are under the annual scheme and the remaining nine come under the semester scheme. Incidentally the first batch of students of the semester scheme diploma students passed out in 2002 May.

However, the issue took a new turn when the government prepared two separate seat matrices based on the numbers of students in each scheme. Semester scheme students argued that ,two separate seat matrices would cut into their share of seats and demanded that a common seat matrix be released for all students.

Annual scheme students felt that there was justification in preparing separate seat matrices as there were only nine polytechnics offering semester scheme compared to 189 colleges under annual scheme.There are around 300 students who have passed out under semester scheme. However, more than 3,000 students come under the annual scheme. Should both groups be given equal preference? they contended.

Meanwhile, Dr Parameshwara said the government will take a decision soon on whether to continue with the semester scheme in polytechnics. He also ruled out any increase in the s 5 per cent quota engineering seats for diploma students.