Agriculture students of the Visva Bharati University have written to their Vice-Chancellor demanding reservation for themselves when applying for postgraduation at the varsity. The letter from the alumni and current undergraduate students was submitted to the VC on November 6. They said that the other two agriculture universities – Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV) and Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV) have implemented systems that favour the admission of their own UG-passed students into their PG courses and this puts them in a fix.
Students, in their letter, said that the internal quotas or reservations at other universities put them at a disadvantage. But this wouldn't be the case if the varsity implemented an internal quota like the other two universities. "At BCKV, they have implemented a system where 80 per cent of the non-ICAR seats are being reserved for their internal students and we are having to compete only for the rest 20 per cent. At UBKV, all the internal students competing for the seats receive a 10 per cent grace marking on their overall score, rendering us at a clear disadvantage," said the students.
The students said that while Visva Bharati does have internal quotas for some Bhavanas (centres), there's no such provision for the students of the Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture). "Many Bhavanas of our Visva-Bharati has seats reserved under ‘Internal Quota’ for admission of our own students into PG courses — some of them have been enjoying this advantage for many years, while some other Bhavanas like Sangeet Bhavana, Physical Education Department, Kala Bhavana and more have implemented this rule recently — and here our Bhavana is exempted from this rule," read the letter. "If possible, we want you to level the playing field by enacting certain rules which give us an edge while competing for PG seats in our own institute with immediate effect, as is the case for every other agricultural university," said the students and asked for a reply by November 8.
