In a further relief for the reserved category students in Delhi University, the management has waived off additional eligibility criteria for the students seeking admission in any course. This is being done to ensure that the seats reserved for SC, ST, OBC and physically-challenged do not remain vacant. These students will also have the option to opt for colleges of their choice. Earlier such students were registered under a centralised cell at the university by filling up an admission form on basis of which they were allotted a college and a course.
The form had the details of their qualifications and preferences but that never gave them a chance to opt for the college of their choice. “We are decentralising the admission policies for the SCs, STs, OBCs and physically-challenged students. The university has already planned to add it on the upcoming bulletin of information. It is offering freedom of choice to such students and has pushed that there should be no such eligibility criteria that pulls them back at any academic level,” said Umesh Rai, the director of South Campus.
This move also comes in wake of the reserved seats that remained vacant in many reputed colleges due to high cut-offs and additional eligibility criterion. “The constitutional provision for reservation for schedule caste and schedule tribe is 22 per cent. Due to the existing criteria, a number of colleges are left with vacant reserved seats as students without such qualification are left out automatically. It accounts for many such colleges which make it mandatory for the students to have certain subjects as compulsory in their Class XII and many others who fall out of it automatically don’t get admitted in reputed colleges. The lifting of such criteria will bring a relief to such students,” he added.