No new admissions to GB Pant College

New Delhi: The G.B. Pant Government Engineering College has been barred for the second year in a row from admitting students because the institute has failed in creating basic facilities and infrastructure in the 10 years of its establishment.

Last year, All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE)  had put the government-run college under the “no admission” category for the year 2017-18 due to the same reason.

An AICTE notification dated April 12 stated that the college lacks facilities such as research labs, sick room, common room for boys and girls and placement office.

The AICTE said: “After examining the matter... it has been decided that G.B. Pant Government Engineering College be placed under “no admission” category for the academic year 2018-19.”  

The college faculty blamed the Delhi government for the move that has threatened the very existence of the institute, established in 2007. The college doesn’t have a permanent campus as yet and operates from a makeshift campus in Okhla.

“The apex regulatory body for technical education has given final no admission notice to G. B. Pant Government Engineering College. Last year, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, had in his Budget speech said that the seats in the college will be doubled,” Joshil K. Abraham, assistant professor (English), told a news agency.

He said that the AICTE’s “no admission category means the college will be shut down”.

Mr Abraham said: “There are only three government engineering colleges in Delhi —  Ambedkar Institute of Advanced Communication Technologies and Research (AIACTR), Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Government Engineering College (Joshil K. Abraham) and G.B. Pant Government Engineering College. Where will the students from economically weaker sections go if one of these is closed?”

Both students and teachers of the college have been asking for a campus since March 7, 2017.

They began their protests by sleeping in the classrooms at night. On April 5 last year, Mr Abraham went on a hungerstrike demanding a permanent campus.

He ended the 25-day-long fast after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal promised a 23-acre campus.

The protest was called off on April 29. However, the construction work for a new campus has not started as yet.