Jalandhar, July 8
Candidates from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, who have been trying for admission to B. Tech in 20 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other institutes through centralised AIEEE counselling at the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology here, have faced a major loss in the share of seats with a change in the admission policy.

As per the new orders of the ministry of human resource and development, the outside-state 50 per cent quota is being filled on the basis of the all-India merit in the AIEEE while doing away with the old formula of giving a fixed adequate representation to each state.

The candidates from Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, who have a relatively higher rank, are grabbing most of the seats this time, leaving a very few seats to the students of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab who stand somewhat lower on the merit ladder.

As per the status of seat allotment available till yesterday, as many as 612 aspirants from Delhi had managed to grab seats till the fourth day of counselling as against the total number of seats (100) available for them till the last year, which already is six times more than their usual number.

Similarly, the students from Andhra Pradesh also have been eating up the seats of students of other states. The Warangal NIT, earlier, had 740 seats, with 370 seats for the students from the own state and the same number for the students from other states. But of the 588 seats allotted to the institute till yesterday, 404 seats have been filled by Andhra students and 184 from other states.

“The Warangal NIT has been reduced to a state college with most students from within the state. The Andhra students with better ranks have already taken 1,096 seats in various institutes, 356 seats above their earlier total sanctioned number,” an NIT Jalandhar counselling coordinator pointed out at the emerging imbalance.

Similarly, Uttar Pradesh, which had 600 seats, took away 852 seats. Rajasthan, which had 610 seats, has managed 947 seats this time.

Punjab students, who earlier had a chance to 510 seats, including 255 in other states, have managed only 89 seats in institutes other than NIT Jalandhar.

Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir students, who till the last year had a claim to 227 seats in states other than Srinagar, have managed only four seats so far. Chandigarh students, however, have had an advantage as 33 students from the UT have managed a seat as against their earlier claim to only six seats.

All the seats in the general category in all streams were filled at NIT Jalandhar till yesterday, leaving a few reserved category seats. The candidates with all-India ranks in the AIEEE from 27,001 to 38,000 were called for counselling today. Their status will be known on the website www. ccb.nic.in after midnight.Dr Moin Uddin, director, NIT Jalandhar, said the counselling would go on for a week.

Jalandhar, July 8
The district agriculture department seized a big consignment of bio-fertilisers at Sharkpur village in Nakodar on Monday.

Giving details, Jalandhar chief agriculture officer Dr Sutantar Kumar Airi said a team of the department conducted a raid on the village after a tip-off and found a Saharanpur-based company selling bio-fertilisers illegally. Airi said the Crop Power Agro Industries had been selling bio-fertilisers directly to the farmers without seeking permission from the department or the Punjab government. Besides, the company had even stocked 442 bags of bio-fertilisers and five drums of pesticides in a godown illegally. He said the godown had been sealed after the raid.

Airi claimed that the department had conducted raids earlier too and seized illegal bio-fertilisers and pesticides being sold by the companies from neighbouring states. “Since the cases were handed over to the local police, the exercise failed to yield results,” he said, adding that this time the department had been pursuing the case on its own.

Hoshiarpur, July 8
Two persons were killed and five injured when a Qualis, in which they were returning to their house, rammed into a ‘mazar’ near Mukho Majra on the Hoshiarpur-Chandigarh road on Monday night.

The deceased have been identified as driver Dilbag Singh and Davinder Singh Bhalla, both of Gurdaspur. All the injured, Tarlok Singh, Pritpal Singh, Hardyal Singh, Diwan Singh and Mohinder Singh, were admitted to the local civil hospital. — OC