Jadavpur University’s decision to fill 487 BTech seats through an independent admission process has left several other engineering colleges down the ladder worried.

Once JU opened its door, many of them lost their students to it. Now, at least one of the colleges wants a separate window to fill up seats.

Kalyani Government Engineering College has applied for a window to admit students independently (not through any centralised counselling). Many others have to follow suit if they want to fill their vacant seats.

The Kalyani college has appealed to the state technology university to extend the deadline for registration so that it could fill 100 seats that fell vacant after JU held its own counselling to fill up 487 vacant seats in late December, an official of the college said.

Sourav Das, the principal of the college, said if the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology extended the period of registration, which ended on January 4, they could fill up the seats from a panel of waitlisted candidates.

The college has 315 seats. One in three is vacant.

The vacant seats are in five disciplines — computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, information technology, electronics and communication engineering and mechanical engineering.

“It seems many of our enrolled students have joined JU,” Das said.

A number of seats at Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, too, fell vacant after JU conducted decentralised counselling. “Around 60 seats are now vacant,” said Amitava Ray, the principal of the college, which has 360 seats.

The college has yet to decide on approaching the university about the vacant seats.

Sources in the university said vacancies had cropped up at the government engineering colleges in Purulia and Cooch Behar.

Calcutta University, too, has conducted independent counselling, to fill 89 seats, but the exodus from the various colleges was mostly triggered by JU’s counselling, sources in the tech university said.

The state government had on December 1 allowed engineering institutions to conduct independent counselling because on an average 60 per cent of the BTech seats remained vacant after a three-phased centralised counselling.

Saikat Maitra, the vice-chancellor of the tech university, said: “We have so far received an application from Kalyani Government Engineering College for extending the deadline for registration. No decision has yet been taken.”

The university is expecting other government colleges to come up with similar proposals.

“Since the UGC… has said second-year classes would have to start in August, extension of the registration process could come in the way of meeting the deadline”, said an official of the university.