Teachers' forum flags concern over 'vacant' reserved category seats in DU

Forum of Academics for Social Justice has written to VC of Delhi University demanding that before admission process for SC, ST, OBC quota begins, data of last 5 years should be checked

Forum of Academics for Social Justice has written a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University (DU) Professor Yogesh Kumar Singh and Registrar Dr. Vikas Gupta, demanding that before commencement of the admission process for SC, ST, OBC quota in UG, PG, PhD courses in DU colleges, subject wise data of the last five years should be called for and checked properly.

According to the forum, the data of subjects like science, commerce and humanities should be called for and their proper checking should be done. It will show that in the last few years, "the colleges have given more admissions than the sanctioned seats, in lieu of which the reserved seats are not filled".

These colleges do not follow the UGC guidelines and the circular on reservation issued by the Ministry of Education, the forum has said.

The admission in DU this time is being done through Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score. There are about 80 departments under the university where postgraduate degrees, PhD, certificate courses and degree courses are conducted. Similarly, DU has about 79 colleges in which undergraduate, postgraduate studies are done. Every year more than 70,000 students are admitted in these colleges and departments in the subjects of science, commerce and humanities at the graduation level.

Dr. Hansraj Suman, Chairman of the Forum and a former member of the Academic Council of Delhi University, has written in the letter that in addition to the total 70,000 seats of the university, colleges increase their seats by 10 per cent every year. "Most of the colleges do not fill the seats of reserved categories in appropriate proportion of the increased seats. The 10 percent reservation has been given for economically weaker students of general category which has led to an overall increase of 25 per cent in the total number of seats to be filled in DU. In this way, according to the statistics of the university, more than 75,000 seats are up for grabs this year," he stated in the letter.

As per the Forum, every college releases high cut off list at the time of admission, due to which reserved category seats remain vacant every year. The Dean Students Welfare runs a special drive after the fifth cut-off list to fill the reserved seats, even in that the cut-off issued is given a slight relaxation, so that the seats of SC, ST, OBC quota are never filled. These seats remain vacant every year. Colleges later convert these seats into general category while claiming that students are not available on these seats.

--IANS

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