LD Engineering College in Ahmedabad is among the 16 government engineering colleges in Gujarat where 1,004 sanctioned posts are lying vacant, the government stated in Gujarat Assembly Monday.
As on December 31, 2022, 1,004 posts or 36 per cent of the 2,744 sanctioned positions were vacant in these colleges. The data tabled by the government in response to a question by Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar during the Question Hour shows 57.6 per cent of Class-1 posts (308), 12.8 per cent of Class-2 posts (189), 64.8 per cent of Class -3 posts (310) and 74 per cent of Class-4 posts (197) lying vacant across these colleges.
The highest number — 211 vacancies — are in the famous LD Engineering college, set up in June 1948. The vacancies in this college form 39.2 per cent of the total 537 sanctioned posts.
The second highest number of vacancies are in LE College, Morbi where 60.5 per cent of the total 315 posts are lying vacant. The government engineering colleges in Bhuj, Modasa and Patan have more than 40 per cent of the total posts vacant.
Among these 16 engineering colleges, only the one at Godhra has 107 per cent of the posts filled. Of the 52 posts in this college, 56 people have been given jobs. Of the 28 Class-2 positions available in the Godhra engineering college, 44 posts have been filled in this cadre.
The government has not given any reasons for this anomaly.
The state government cited reasons such as voluntary retirement, shifting to other jobs, deaths, promotions and resignations as some of the reasons for the high number of vacancies.
Vacant Seats
In reply to a separate question asked by Parmar, the state government said there was a 27 per cent rise in the number of vacant engineering seats in government, grant-in-aid and self-financed colleges in Gujarat. Compared to 30,829 seats that remained vacant in the year 2021–2022, the numbers shot up to 39,360 seats in 2022–23.
The vacancy in self-financed colleges was the highest. Of the 30,829 seats that remained empty in 2021–22, a total of 28,758 seats were self-financed seats. Similarly, of the 39,360 seats that were vacant in 2022–23, a total of 34,071 were self-financed. The government stated that the colleges did not get enough qualified students in time to fill up the seats.
There are 69,410 engineering degree seats.