Only 233 candidates have applied for about 8,000 available seats
At the ongoing counselling at Anna University, response from persons with disability has been poor. This year, following an order issued by the government, the university authorities had increased the number of seats reserved for candidates with disability to 5% of the total allotted seats.
This amounts to around 8,000 seats but only 233 candidates had applied. Candidates with speech and hearing impairment, visual impairment and orthopaedically handicapped persons alone had applied, said Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions 2017 selection secretary J. Indumathi.
The university had opened up seats for candidates with autism, intellectual disabilities, specific learning disability, mental illness and multiple disabilities. “The government order was issued in the beginning of June and each category has been allocated 1% reservation but candidates have not applied,” she said. For the first time the university had also introduced the use of battery car for candidates to be transported from the main gate to the venue of counselling. It had provided 23 wheel chairs at the entrance of the hall. As many as 62 candidates remained absent. Only 20 of the 25 hearing impaired candidates; 24 of the 30 visually impaired aspirants; 118 of the 178 eligible orthopaedically disadvantaged candidates participated in the counselling. Eighteen candidates skipped counselling and 162 were allotted seats. Candidates chose ECE, CSE and Mechanical Engineering.
Tanuvas fares better
It was much better at the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. On the first day of the three-day counselling on Wednesday, 121 candidates, including 28 from vocational stream and 93 from various categories, were called. Sixteen candidates were called for the 5% reservation for the differently abled; five under the sports category; and two from the ex-servicemen category.
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