2 percent reservation for sportspersons in TN Engineering admission

chennai: the higher education minister ponmudi revealed that from the next academic year, 2 percent of engineering seats will be reserved for sportspersons. this decision follows the current allocation of 500 seats for sportspersons during this year's counselling.minister ponmudi inaugurated the be, b.tech online counselling for the current academic year's engineering admissions yesterday. during his address, he highlighted several key updates. the first phase of counselling for special category students has commenced. this year, 1,79,938 seats across 433 colleges will be filled under the government quota, an increase of 28,000 seats from last year. currently, 500 seats are reserved for the sports category, but starting next year, 2 percent of total seats will be reserved, translating to at least 3,600 seats, a sixfold increase.the minister also announced that a non-member search committee will be formed by the ugc to appoint vice-chancellors in tamil nadu universities. additionally, the remuneration for honorary lecturers will be determined based on the government's financial position. admissions for masters programs in government colleges will be announced soon, and last year's tuition fees for engineering colleges will remain unchanged.present at the event were higher education secretary pradeep yadav, technical education commissioner abraham, anna university vice-chancellor velraj, and engineering admission committee secretary purushothaman.this year, 2,09,645 students are participating in counselling, with 1,12,805 male students, 87,197 female students, and three students of the third gender. a total of 2,40,091 seats are available in 433 engineering colleges, covering both government and administrative quotas, with 1,79,938 seats being allotted through counselling. the colleges are offering 106 courses, with 10 new courses introduced this year. notably, 33,335 candidates have applied for the 7.5 percent seat reservation for government school students, which includes 15,978 male students, 17,355 female students, and two students of the third gender.