20% applicants fail to turn up

The examination was conducted for admissions into various diploma courses — including civil,mechanical,electrical,electronics and communication,computer science,fashion designing and architecture.

“A couple of years ago,the number of polytechnic colleges in the state was around 109 and the total number of seats was 53,000. Now,the number of colleges has shot up to 149 and the number of seats have increased to 60,000,” said a Board official.

When contacted,Registrar of Punjab Board of Technical Education,Dr Arunachala,said: “All seats can be filled up with these 80 per cent students,who have sat for the examination today.”

This year,while 40,000 seats will be filled up through two counselling sessions,20,000 seats will be filled by the college managements. Last year as well,around 21,000 seats (35 per cent) had remained vacant out of the total 60,000 seats.

Asked why number of seats were being increased when most remained vacant,Arunachala said: “This is the trend all over the country now. Every state wants to give more and more opportunities to students.”