Keep seats for Kashmiri migrants, govt to varsities

Ministry wants cut-off percentage to be relaxed

 “As Kashmiri migrants continue to face hardships, it would be necessary to provide concessions to their wards for admission during the coming academic session,” Ministry of Human Resource Development said in a letter to all the state government, University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education.

The ministry asked all the universities and educational institutions to relax the cut off percentage by 10 per cent for Kashmiri students subject to the minimum eligibility requirement in the institution concerned. “Increase intake capacity upto 5 per cent course wise,” it said.

The ministry asked the state governments to extend the date of admission by 30 days for students, who migrated from Kashmir, in the universities and colleges functioning in their jurisdiction. It recommended reservation of “at least one seat in merit quota” for Kashmiri students in all the technical and professional institutions of the country.

The ministry also recommended that Kashmiri students should be given facility of migration “in the second and subsequent years” from one university to another.
Appreciating the government’s initiative spokesperson of Panun Kashmir ( an organisation struggling for political survival of Kashmiri Pandits) Kamal Hak said, “Its’ a good initiative. This will certainly benefit large number of children who have migrated from Kashmir.”

For greater help

Especially, the suggestion of government to relax the cut off percentage by 10 per cent in universities and colleges would be of greater help to the Kashmiri students in getting admission in good colleges, he said.

“Many Kashmiri migrant students are deprived of quality education because they could not secure very high marks in absence of exposure to good schools due to their financial constrains,” he added. He also appreciated the suggestion of providing migration facility to Kashmiri migrant’s students from one university to other.