Few takers for Engineering courses

Today i read an article that the state of engineering and polytechnic colleges that mushroomed in himachal over the past few years is appalling . There are about 6000 engineering seats in various private and govt. engineering colleges in the state. However , now only 3000 seats filled in forms for attending the counselling being conducted by Himachal Pradesh Technical University. Sources said, only 1500 students were expected to attend the counselling. Only about 25 percent seats woukd be filled if all the students who attend counselling take admission to engineering colleges. The state of polytechnic colleges is even worse. The sources said there were about 10,000 polytechnic and engineering diploma seats in the state and only 500 students had come through counselling conducted by the state technical education department.
    Owners of engineering colleges and private universities are blaming politicians and certain vested groups of carriying out a slander compaign against the institutions that have come up in the state. The chansellor of a private university said that they had set up colleges investing amounts ranging upto Rs. 100 crore in Himachal with a view that the students from across  the country would be attracted to take admission here due to the serene enviornment in the state. The sources also blamed that the overall slow down and a sudden decline in the tendency of the students towards technical education for the poor state of technical institutes in the state. Moreover, this year many students had opted for courses such as B.Com and B.Sc than engineering and diploma courses.