The Union government agreed to compensate
for the loss northeastern states would suffer by way of reduced seats during implementation of the new admission policy in National Institutes of Technology (NITs).
The states that do not have any NIT or technical institution will be compensated by being allocated more seats.
This was decided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development during the meeting with secretaries/commissioners of different states and Union territories (UTs) on Thursday in New Delhi.
Earlier Assam and Tripura government also opposed the decision of the Union government.
According to a PIB release, the meeting discussed the rationale for decision of MHRD for filling up of 50% of the total seats of NITs, which were meant for candidates not belonging to the State where a particular NIT is located, on all India merit basis.
In view of apprehensions expressed by a few of States/UTs which feared loss of seats in NITs to eligible candidates from their States/UTs on account of this policy change, a decision was taken to compensate to the extent possible, the release said.
“Such of the States who either don’t have an NIT as of now or are highly deficient in having technical institutions especially the States in North Eastern Region and who may be adversely affected by the above decision of filling up of seats purely on all India merit basis, by allocating more seats under the Scheme of “Reservation of seats in technical institutions for State/UTs lacking such facilities”, the release added. In addition, due consideration would be given for establishment of an NIT in States which do not have an NIT. It may be mentioned the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Act 2007 came into force on August 15, 2007 and 2008 is the first year of admissions in NITs after the NIT Act came into force.
Recently, the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) expressed disappointment with the new directive of the MHRD for allotment of seats in the NITs. The Federation said the decision would affect the Northeastern states, in particular Nagaland, as dominating states would have the upper hand in the NITs.
NSF stated it was also imperative on the part of Nagaland Government to pursue and request the MHRD to review the decision and to continue with the previous norms and standard relating to admission in NITs.
Monday, July 28, 2025