Bangalore: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the overseeing body for technical education said about 1,000 engineering institutes have applied applications for closure of IT departments in their respective colleges. Most colleges reasoned that this was a necessity as the demand for IT seats had come down and the placement of IT graduates had become very difficult for the colleges reports Hemali Chhapia for Times Of India. Taken aback by such a large number of requests for closure, AICTE turned them all down and asked colleges to go to their respective state governments, to get a no-objection certificate and supplement it with their application. Colleges said that if AICTE was not happy with the closure, it could at least give a leeway for the colleges to convert the seats of IT to the remaining other technical departments like Mechanical and civil. AICTE chairman, S S Mantha said that a mass closure of IT departments will translate into several other issues like hundreds of faculties who are teaching IT in colleges will go unemployed and the infrastructure that is setup for this stream will go in vain. Experts were of the opinion that whatever the reasons for the decline in popularity of the IT stream, it was vital for technical education to advance in a scientific rather than whimsical manner. Every state must draw up a district wise requirement of manpower, and all that must be collated at the state level. Professional and technical education has to be in sync with the requirements of industry. Departments cannot be started or shut down based on what colleges perceive about the shape of things to come, said Mantha. Else, a few years down the line, a wave in placements could see engineering colleges lining up once again to start IT departments. Finally, only around six colleges managed to get an NOC from their affiliating university and state government. However, almost every institute plans on filing a closure application again for the 2011 academic session bringing the IT revolution to a pause if not a full stop.