chennai last year 42000 government quota seats offered through single window counselling went vacant this year an estimated 28000 seats are to be added to the engineering seat matrix and there is no need to book a seat in a top college or otherwise experts advise parents parents who remain doubtful could just look at the numbers to feel reassured the state has set up three new government engineering colleges that will start taking students from 201213 more than 100 new engineering colleges have sought approval from the all india council for technical education this year and several existing colleges have been allowed to add additional seats and start new courses we havent received complaints of seats being sold or bought but there is no need for parents to worry more seats will be available through single window counselling than last year said anna university vicechancellor p mannar jawahar the university is responsible for conducting the single window counselling system last year seats were vacant in even the most soughtafter technical institutions in anna university only 2151 of the sanctioned 2305 seats were filled at the end of the admission season of the free seats in government engineering colleges 126 remained vacant a total of 64880 of the 226034 engineering seats remained unfilled s vaidyasubramaniam dean of planning and development at sastra university said capitation feebased admission is a reward for a students monetary background than merit if parents have full confidence in their wards performance they should refrain from such practice with the vacancy position worsening year after year why should parents press the monetary pedal now and create an artificial hype what value system will a student imbibe when money and not merit is rewarded