CSAB tells students to utilise reserved Seats

Officials associated with the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) 2026 have urged students from Nagaland and other Northeastern states to fully utilise reserved seats under the CSAB-NEUT scheme, noting that many seats — including those under the home state quota in National Institutes of Technology (NITs) — remained unfilled due to low participation.
Addressing a press conference at the Department of Technical Education conference hall here Friday following a counselling session, CSAB 2026 local organising committee convener Dr. Surajit Kumar Roy of IIEST Shibpur said the initiative aims to expand access to quality technical education for students from the Northeast and Union Territories. He said the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) is conducted by the National Testing Agency, while seat allocation for undergraduate programmes is carried out through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) and CSAB strictly on the basis of JEE (Main) 2026 rank and prescribed eligibility criteria.
Roy explained that JoSAA conducts counselling for admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), NITs, Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs). He said the system comprises the Joint Admission Board (JAB), which oversees IIT admissions, and CSAB, which handles admissions for NITs, IIITs and GFTIs. For 2026, IIEST Shibpur has been designated as the coordinating institute.
He informed that 113 institutes are participating in the counselling process this year, offering a total of 47,922 seats, including about 25,006 seats in NITs. Of these, he said 50% were reserved under the home state quota, including for students from Northeastern states.
Highlighting the CSAB-NEUT scheme, Roy said the Ministry of Education introduced the initiative to provide additional seats exclusively for students from eight Northeastern states and five Union Territories.
He said these seats were over and above those offered through JoSAA rounds and were allocated through a separate online counselling process conducted by CSAB to ensure transparency and wider participation.
Providing details, CSAB-NEUT subcommittee member Dr. Kunjari Mog of IIEST Shibpur said a tentative total of 1,063 seats would be available under CSAB-NEUT 2026. These include 1,001 seats for B.E./B.Tech, 42 for Bachelor of Architecture and 24 for pharmacy programmes, distributed state-wise and category-wise across participating institutions.
She said candidates for engineering and architecture courses must have a valid JEE (Main) 2026 rank — Paper 1 for B.E./B.Tech and Paper 2 for B.Arch — and must have passed Class XII in 2024, 2025 or 2026 with at least 45% aggregate marks for engineering and 50% for architecture. For B.Arch, Dr. Kunjari Mog said candidates must also qualify NATA or JEE Paper 2. A relaxation of 5% is applicable for SC, ST and PwD candidates.
For pharmacy courses, she said candidates must have passed Class XII with Physics and Chemistry along with one of Mathematics, Biology, Biotechnology or Computer Science. She said allotment would be based on Class XII aggregate marks, with no requirement of a JEE rank.
She emphasised that a valid Permanent Residence Certificate or domicile certificate for the respective Northeastern state or Union Territory was mandatory, along with prescribed category certificates. Registration for CSAB-NEUT 2026 is expected to begin in the last week of June, while help centres will be activated from June 2. Students were advised to prepare documents in advance.
Speaking on local participation, National Institute of Technology Nagaland Associate Dean Dr. J. Arul Valan said the institute, located in Chümoukedima, offers six B.Tech programmes with an intake of 30 students per branch, of which 50% seats are reserved for home state candidates.
However, he expressed concern that home state quota seats have remained unfilled for the past six years, with only about 52 to 62 admissions recorded in recent years despite available capacity.
He said admissions can only be made through the counselling process and vacant seats cannot be filled independently, underscoring the need for greater awareness among students and parents.
Also addressing the media, joint director of Technical Education David Tsela said CSAB counselling was likely to begin by mid-June. He said the department would set up a help desk to assist students and parents with counselling procedures, with dedicated teams to address queries.
Tsela further said 152 seats have been allocated to Nagaland by the Government of India across engineering, architecture and pharmacy courses, and encouraged eligible candidates to make use of the opportunity.
Officials said the CSAB-NEUT scheme remains a significant avenue for students from the Northeast to access professional courses across India and urged timely registration and proper documentation to ensure that no seat goes vacant.