One of the other members of the board of governors of the Shri Balwant Institute of Technology said he is not aware of a relationship between the AICTE head and the owners of the college.
“I don’t know if they are related. I don’t have any idea,” said Pritam Singh, former director of Management Development Institute in Gurgaon and the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow; both top-tier Indian business schools. “I was invited by Rameshji and Sushilji to be on the board as they needed someone who could help them (start the college). I don’t remember the date.”
On a recent afternoon, outside the college, students huddled over books to cram for a test. They said counsellors had guided them to the college after they sat for the All India Engineering Entrance Examination. Annual tuition fees of the college are Rs50,000.
“Engineering seats are less in Delhi and after getting to know our rank, we were told that this will be a good college for us,” said Vineet, the son of a businessman and an undergraduate engineering student who goes by one name.
In Haryana, besides Shri Balwant, the Anupma College of Engineering in Gurgaon, started in 1996, received a 100% seat increase from 120 to 240 seats in 2007. The other two colleges, Gold Field Institute of Technology and Management, set up in 2005, and Panipat Institute of Textile and Engineering, set up in 2006, each received a 50% seat increase, raising their seats from 240 to 360.
Not everyone is so lucky. The Shri Krishan Institute of Engineering and Technology, located in the same state on a 23-acre campus, started admitting students a decade ago and offered 300 seats in 1999 in undergraduate courses in engineering. With increased demand, the college applied for an increase of 60 seats in 2005 and again in 2006. Its application was rejected both the years. The institute has applied again, this time for 120 seats.
“We have not been given any reason for the rejection of the application”, claims I.J.S. Lamba, director of the institute. One of the promoters of the college, R.K. Sharma, would only say there must have been valid reasons for the rejection of his college’s application but declined to elaborate citing fears of creating a controversy.