The Hindu : Surrender of unfilled seats by minority colleges may become mandatory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Surrender of unfilled seats by minority colleges may become mandatory

By R. Ravikanth Reddy

HYDERABAD, FEB. 25. Concerned over criticism on the issue of giving minority status to 55 new B.Ed colleges, the Government is contemplating altering the G.O. No. 1 and introducing a new clause that makes it mandatory for minority colleges to surrender seats to the Convenor in case they do not find eligible candidates from the minority community concerned.

The clause is likely to dilute the minority colleges' enthusiasm over the acquired status. "They will not be able to admit non-minority candidates against the seats which have to be necessarily filled with minority students," says an official of the A.P. State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE). Hitherto, in such a situation the college managements used to "sell" the seats to non-minority candidates for a premium price given the huge demand for them.

The Government has accorded minority status to managements of 36 Christian colleges out of the newly released list of 55 colleges. "Do Christian students need so many students," asks, the ABVP state secretary, V, Narender. He says Christian population is not more than 3 per cent in the State while nearly 40 per cent of minority colleges belong to Christian managements. "Even in the existing colleges, none of them has full strength of Christian students indicating that there are not many takers from the community for B.Ed course."

To give some credence to these statements, the Government had not released the number of Christian minority candidates qualified in the Ed.CET while the numbers of all other communities like Muslims, OCs, BCs, SCs and STs are given in detail. "Let them also give the details of Christian candidates for transparent admission procedure," demands Mr. Narender. The officials, however, refuse to be drawn into an argument on this issue, though they state that the need was never felt.

However, to avoid further criticism and check misuse of religion, officials say that the Government would consider the SSC transfer certificate to determine the religious status of the students seeking admission under Christian minority quota.

"Given several complaints that some students seek baptism purely for educational gains, the Government plans to consider SSC transfer certificate as the proof," says an official.

However, the officials are not sure whether it would stand legal scrutiny if any student moves the court stating that he had changed religion recently and cannot be discriminated.

The Government also wants to ensure that minority colleges submit the list of the selected candidates to the APSCHE or the Minorities Welfare Department within 30 days of admission procedure completing.

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