The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has approved five more seats for the bachelor of architecture course at the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) for the 2016-17 academic session.

During the last academic session, the college had 40 seats, of which five were reserved for the north-east students, who got admission through the reference of the ministry.

As per the new break-up plan, there will be two more seats under the open quota for Chandigarh students, whose total number now comes to 22. For Scheduled Castes, there will be an additional seat, taking the total number to five. For wards of the military or paramilitary officials, there will be an additional one seat, taking the total number of seats to two. One seat has been added to the open quota for candidates from other states.

College Principal Pardeep Kumar Bhagat said they had apprised the Council of Architecture about the increase in the number of seats. He said they had also applied for an inspection by the council for the five-year affiliation of the college.

Records of the college revealed that for the past two years, not even a single student from north-east took admission in the college due to which the seats reserved for them remained vacant. In fact, in the past decade, only one or two seats were filled every year by students from north-east. Last year, around 2,000 applications were received for admission at the college.