Teachers' Forum asks DU to review its admission for SC, ST, OBC quota seats

The 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 the subject-wise admission data of the last five years be taken up and checked properly. This is with regard to SC, ST and OBC quota admissions in UG, PG and PhD courses in DU colleges.

The letter urges that the data analysis should be done before the said quota admissions commence. The Forum has alleged that DU colleges do not follow the UGC guidelines and the circular on reservation issued by the Ministry of Education, as per a report by IANS. "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," the Forum stated.

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 should 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 per cent reservation has been given for Economically Weaker Students of the 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 said.

The Forum explained that every college releases a high cut-off list at the time of admission, due to which the reserved category seats remain vacant every year. The Dean of Students Welfare runs a special drive after the fifth cut-off list to fill the reserved seats. Then the cut-offs are given only a slight relaxation, leading to the seats of SC, ST and OBC quota not being filled again. Colleges later convert these into General category seats, while claiming that students are not available on these seats, the Forum alleged.