The Hindu : Kerala News : Order affects students from quota list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 03, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Order affects students from quota list

By J. Ajith Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 2. The Department for the Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has by an order denied educational concessions legitimately due to students belonging to these communities who have secured admission to professional courses in self-financing colleges in the State in 2004.

According to the prospectus for admission to professional degree courses for the year 2004, candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Eligible Communities (OECs) are exempted from payment of any fee or deposit in government, aided or self-financing colleges.

The fee or deposit due from such students is to be sanctioned by the SC/ST Development Department as per GO(MS) 164/2000/H. Edn, dated November 2, 2000.

The Government Order [GO(MS) No.48/2004] of the Department of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, issued on July 17, 2004, stipulates that 10 per cent of `government seats' in self-financing colleges should be set apart for students belonging to the SCs and STs and that they will be eligible for all educational concessions. Though students of these communities are eligible for seats under the General Merit, Regional Reservation and Community Reservation categories, based on the rank secured by them in the entrance examination, this particular order will adversely affect those students who have got admission in self-financing colleges under the State Merit and Regional Reservation quotas, based on their high ranks in the entrance examination.

As per the admission principle, the State Merit seats and Regional Reservation seats have to be filled before filling up the seats under the Communal Reservation quota.

The provision for educational concession has not been made applicable to them since fee concession will be available only to those admitted under the SC/ST reservation quota as per the order of July 17, 2004.

Another anomaly

There is yet another anomaly in regard to the granting of fee concession to students belonging to the SCs, STs or OECs, securing admission to professional courses.

Based on the allotment principle involved in the admission process, there could be variation of SC/ST/OEC reservation seats from one professional college to the other.

However, the total number of seats under the reservation category at the State- level would remain the same.

If a candidate in the reservation category opts for a seat in the merit category in the college of his preference, for which he is eligible by virtue of securing a top rank in the entrance examination, this option is granted at the time of allotment of seats. This results in the shifting of a seat under the reservation quota to a college that is usually the least preferred.

The accumulation of such `floating seats' in one particular college that is least in demand causes the creation of seats under the reservation category in excess of the number fixed initially for each college at the time of the commencement of the Centralised Allotment Process.

As per the above order of the SC/ST Development Department, educational concession could be granted only to 10 per cent of government quota seats in a self-financing college. Therefore, if there are more students, in excess of the 10 per cent, due to the accumulation of floating seats, such candidates do not become eligible for fee concession as per this order.

Till the 2003 admissions to professional courses, all candidates belonging to SC/ST/OEC categories, admitted to self-financing colleges against the government quota, irrespective of the fact whether their admission was under the State Merit, Regional Reservation or SC/ST quota, were granted fee concession by the department concerned. The issue of floating seats also did not arise during admissions conducted in the past.

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