History of RECs

History Of RECs

During the second five-year plan (1956–60) in India, a number of industrial projects were contemplated. To ensure enough supply of trained personnel to meet the demand for these projects, the decision was taken to start Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), at the rate of one per each major state, which can churn out graduates with good engineering merit. Thus, seventeen RECs were established from 1959 onwards in each of the major states. Each college was a joint and cooperative enterprise of the central government and the concerned state government. All the 20 institutes now offer degree courses at various bachelors, masters and doctorate levels in various branches of engineering and technology. The entire non-recurring expenditure and expenditure for post-graduate courses during the REC times were borne by the central government. As regards in the REC system the entire recurring expenditure on undergraduate courses, the same was shared by the central government and the state government on 50:50 basis. However after becoming NITs the entire funding is managed by the centre now. REC system served well but as time passed some state governments shown lack of responsibility to take them in right direction. Following the long standing demand for more IITs the then MHRD Minister Murali Manoher Joshi decided to upgrade the RECs to National Institute Of Technology(NIT).In 2003 all RECs were upgraded to NITs and central government took control to run these Institutes.