National capital Delhi houses the highest number of ‘fake’ colleges offering engineering and other technical courses without approval from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), reveals data provided by the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) in response to a question raised in the Lok Sabha earlier this week. 

According to the data made available to Parliament by minister of state for HRD Satya Pal Singh, of the 277 ‘fake’ engineering colleges identified in the country over the last three years, 66 are in Delhi while Telangana is placed second on the list with its share of 35. West Bengal comes third with 27. The ministry has now directed AICTE to take necessary action against such colleges. AICTE chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe said, “These are basically unapproved institutions. The courses — diploma, degree and others — offered by these institutes are of no value as these courses are not recognised by any regulatory authority. AICTE keeps updating the list of institutions that are not approved.”