Gujarat: 36 pc of sanctioned posts in govt engineering colleges, 28 pc in polytechnic colleges vacant, Assembly informed

Gandhinagar, Mar 6 (PTI) A total of 1,004, or 36.6 per cent, of the 2,744 sanctioned posts in 16 government engineering colleges and 986, or 28.5 per cent, of 3,463 sanctioned Class I-III posts in government polytechnic colleges were vacant as on December 31 last year, the Gujarat government informed the Assembly on Monday.

State higher and technical education minister Rushikesh Patel gave the information while replying to a query on vacancies in government engineering colleges by Congress MLA Arjun Modhwadia.

The minister’s reply stated that resignation, retirement, voluntary retirement, transfer to another job, promotion and death, among others, were the main reasons for these posts lying vacant.

There 2,744 Class I to IV sanctioned posts in 16 government engineering colleges, of which 1,740 are filled as on December 31, 2022, Patel said.

Out of 534 Class I sanctioned posts, 308, or around 58 per cent, are vacant, while 13 per cent, or 189 out of 1,467 Class II sanctioned posts are vacant, he said.
It is 64.8 per cent (310 out of 478) for Class III and 74.3 per cent (196 out of 265) for Class IV posts, the minister added.

“Out of 986 posts vacant in the polytechnics, 84 are Class I posts, 182 are Class II, and 720 are Class III posts,” Patel said.

Patel, who also holds the health portfolio, in his reply to a separate starred question, said nearly 33 per cent or 249 out of 744 approved Class I-IV posts in government (PDU medical) college and hospital in Rajkot are vacant.

“The number of vacant posts in Sir T general hospital in Bhavnagar is 61, or 7.5 per cent, of 814 approved posts. For SSG hospital in Vadodara, the number of vacant posts is 121, or 6.3 per cent, of 1,908 approved posts,” he said.

In academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23, a total of 12,103 seats were filled while 6,822 remained empty in government engineering colleges, the minister told the House.
The numbers of empty seats were 538 and 62,829 in grant-in-aid and self-financed engineering colleges, respectively, during these two academic years, he added.
“In government polytechnic colleges, 28,423 seats were filled up while 11,480 remained empty for these two academic years. As many as 116 seats remained vacant in grant-in-aid and 41,053 in self-financed polytechnic colleges,” he further said.

Patel said fees for government and private medical colleges remained unchanged in the last two academic sessions.

Five medical colleges run by Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS) became functional in 2022, and 500 students were admitted, he said.
In 2021, a private medical college and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rajkot had admitted a total of 200 students, he said.