Tamil Nadu rejects engineering admission norms

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government, which has refused to abide by the
admission norms set by the All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) for engineering courses, has decided to continue its own norms
formulated last year.

The AICTE circular would make social justice philosophy meaningless,
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Wednesday said in a statement.

He said the state government, in order to make available engineering
course to all sections of the student community, had laid down the
minimum qualifying marks as 50 percent for general category, 45
percent for backward classes, 40 percent for most backward classes and
35 percent for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

A recent AICTE circular had laid down minimum eligibility for general
category students at 50 percent and 45 percent for all other
categories.

Karunanidhi said following the AICTE norms would exclude students from
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and students
from rural areas.

He also urged the AICTE to revoke its circular in the larger interests
of the student community without citing that the education is under
concurrent list of the Indian constitution. IANS