University of Delhi rejects reservation of 85% students

The proposal of Delhi government for the reservation of 85% seats for the Delhi domicile students in all 12 colleges wholly funded by state government and other 16 colleges receiving 5% of its fund from Delhi government, has been rejected by the University of Delhi on the 16th of April 2014. This break has been unfolded by an RTI application filed by Abhishek Ranjan, RTI Activist who is an ex-student of the University on 3rd March. These colleges include Maharaja Agrasen College, Shaheed Rajguru College, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Keshav Mahavidyalaya and Deen Dayal Upadhayay College. Ranjan had appealed to the Prime Minister Office (PMO) directly for getting first hand information on the issue. On receiving his application, the PMO forwarded it to Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. The University was then asked to provide answers to Ranjan’s letter no. F.No.63-4(3)/2014-CU-III, dated 14th March 2014. “Being a law student, I wanted to know whether such reservation can be allowed in a Central University. I filed the RTI asking if such proposal can be accepted by any Central University, whether there has been any such proposal in DU and if yes, what decisions have been taken on the matter. According to me if this kind of reservation is allowed in DU now, then people will start asking for similar reservations in other universities like JNU,” says Ranjan. He added that new colleges should be open, number of seats should be increased and even introduction of evening shifts in colleges can be there in order to solve the problem of admissions of the Delhi domicile students. R.K. Verma, Principal Secretary of Department of IT had written to Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University on 25th February 2014, asking for reservations and mentioning that the students of Delhi have to go outside Delhi for pursuing higher studies because of lack of institutions in Delhi which could provide admission to all students passing their higher secondary exam from the schools of Delhi. On 27th March 2014, the Assistant Registrar (Academics) of Delhi University in his reply mentioned that the proposal submitted by the University for the Reservation of seats can’t be accepted, Delhi University being a Central University. Nandita Narain, the President of DUTA expresses her views on the matter, “We, at DUTA, totally agree with the decision of the University. Diversity from all over the country is one of the highlighting features of our university. The proposal by Sheila Dixit government was totally an unacceptable one on the grounds of Delhi University being a Central University and not a State University.” Source: Education News