No end to admission tussle
DU colleges defy HRD order on SC/ST admissions, activists irked
Activists working for SC and ST category students admissions in Delhi University have objected to university not following directives of the ministry of human resource development regarding admitting students – general and reserved category in equal proportions or the actual intake.
“Usually there are three cut-off lists which used to come out for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) students. This year DU closed all admissions after the second cut-off list. When the human resource development (HRD) ministry has already stated that if there are over admissions in general category students, then the admissions for reserved category students will also be increased accordingly, still the university chose not to follow the directive,” said Sujit Kumar, activist and DU student.
Around 24,000 students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category applied this year. DU closed its admissions after filling 12,000 reserved seats in various colleges.
“Most colleges in most of the courses over admit students in general category, however, when it comes to reserve category they close admissions. If a college is over admitting 30 students in general category why can’t it increase the intake of six-seven students in reserved category?,” said Kumar. He added had DU colleges followed the HRD directive, at least 40 per cent more, which comes to around 6,000-7,000 more students could have been given admissions this year. The cut-offs for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category are still coming out as per the order of filling all OBC seats on actual intake given by the HRD ministry.
The principals’ association has been raising concerns over calculation of total intake with over admitting students from general as well as reserved category.
“Students from general category drop their admission after getting through medical, engineering, management colleges. We don’t know how to reduce the number of the reserved category students then. Now that the OBC cut-off is still going on, we are still unsure when the admissions will finally stop for us to calculate the total intake,” added a member.
The members also cited reason of colleges lacking infrastructure for not carrying out over admissions in general as well as reserved category.
“When they can over admit 30-40 students above than the sanctioned seats in general category, why does the infrastructure question comes only when five-six more students from reserved category ask for admissions?,” added Kumar.
