The Hindu : New Delhi News : Colleges finding it tough to fill OBC seats

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Sunday, Jul 13, 2008
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Colleges finding it tough to fill OBC seats

Parul Sharma

NEW DELHI: Despite the fourth admission list offering significant relaxation to candidates from the Other Backward Classes in terms of minimum cut-off percentage for enrolment to different courses, most colleges of Delhi University are still finding it difficult to fill the seats earmarked for them.

In the fourth list, the colleges lowered the cut-off for OBCs by up to 10 per cent in some programmes – the maximum differential in the eligibility criteria allowed by the Supreme Court. However, colleges are not finding enough takers.

At Lady Shri Ram College, out of around 60 seats reserved for the OBCs, only 15 have been filled even after four cut-off lists.

“It is kind of unexpected since we thought we would get a lot of OBC candidates. But this is also the first year for the implementation of OBC reservation. We hope the situation would be better next year. After the fourth list, we witnessed a lot of intra-college movement,” said LSR media coordinator Kanika Khandelwal on Saturday.

“As we lowered the cut-offs, many OBC students who had got enrolled for B.A. (Programme) have shifted to B.Com. within the college. So now our OBC seats for B.Com. are full but we do not have enough candidates in B.A. (Prog.). Otherwise we are almost full as far as the overall general seats are concerned,” she added.

At Hans Raj College, all the general seats have got filled up. However, when it comes to the OBC quota, the college has only managed to cover 45 out of 90 seats.

“We have decided that if we do not get enough OBC candidates on Monday (the last day for making payment of fees to get a seat on the basis of the fourth list), we will put up a fresh notice inviting applications from OBC students. Anyone with a differential of up to 10 per cent in that particular course can apply. Then we will arrange these applications in order of merit and select students,” said Hans Raj Principal S.R. Arora.

The same strategy will be adopted by Dyal Singh College that has so far made 80 OBC admissions against 119 seats.

“If the OBC seats remain vacant after the fourth list, we may issue an advertisement in the newspapers inviting fresh applications from students and give them admission according to merit,” said Principal Inder Bakshi.

Some colleges like Sri Venkateswara and Maharaja Agrasen will take stock of the situation on Monday.

“We have filled 15 seats out of 28 seats meant for the OBCs. We will keep the seats open till the time we get candidates. We are waiting for a directive from the University on how to go about the whole process after the fourth list,” said Maharaja Agrasen College Principal Sunil Sondhi on Saturday.

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