kolkata despite sharp criticism the state has no plans to do away with the existing norm of granting engineering admissions to hs science students with more than 45 in the aggregate to fill seats lying vacant after admitting west bengal joint entrance examination wbjee candidates and those with engineering diplomas inspite of stiff resistance from jadavpur university ju and bengal engineering and science university besu saying that the move would erode quality of engineering students the government was unfazedeven chose to ignore education minister bratya basus declaration on monday that the government would not deviate from the policy contradicts the joint entrance boards move on saturday to award ranks only till 90000 in wbjee 2013 this was aimed at preserving the quality of engineering students we have consciously taken the decision to cap wbjee ranks till 90000 so that we do not compromise on the quality of students which has remained a concern for the government said basu he however added that the government had no plans to do away with the current norm of offering engineering seats to hs science students with more than 45 in the aggregate in case seats are available even after admitting all students who have secured a rank in the wbjee the number of empty seats in engineering is huge after several rounds of counselling there were around 10000 vacant seats in 2012 a substantial number of seats were filled through wbjee ranks and from all india engineering entrance examination aieee and very few students were taken merely on the basis of hs results this method is also followed in other states this is the last priority said a higher education department source the first priority for engineering admissions is given to students from wbjee ranks followed by aieee ranks