The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked (pdf) all technical institutions, including around 10,000 engineering colleges, to put up an online portal for registering and disposal of complaints. The AICTE notification mentions that all technical institutions should have a notice board near the office of its Head, informing the students about the portal, along with providing names, contact numbers and email IDs of members of the Grievance Committee to ensure public awareness. Additionally, an online monthly status report on the number of issues received, disposed and pending on the last day of the previous month should be provided to the regulator. Other than this, the Council will take into account the performance of the portal at the time of renewal of the institution’s approval every year. However, AICTE does not specify a deadline of the institutions to come up with such a portal. Instead, the council mentions that “Non-registration of grievances on the portal of the Institution resulting in more number of grievances being registered on the pg.portal of Central Government which would be an indication that the grievance redress mechanism of the respective institution/organisation is not working properly to the satisfaction of the petitioners.” Note that in July 2014, the UGC said it would launch an ‘Online students grievance redressal portal’ that would let students and the universities along with their affiliated colleges report their grievances related to unfair practices, admissions and other issues to the UGC. The portal was finally launched in March 2015.
