A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal revealed that instruction was given to Education Minister Manish Sisodia to explore the possibility of 80 to 85 per cent reservation for Delhiites in the city Government-aided colleges, the latter told The Pioneer on Monday that the Government has already approached the Centre regarding the matter. “The University Grants Commission (UGC) should not have any issue with regards to change in admission guidelines,” he added.
The AAP Government has also impressed upon the Centre to reserve 85 per cent seats for Delhi students in the DU colleges as UGC has no role in the admission process, said Sisodia, adding that they are in process of getting approval from the Centre and eventually will channelise things.
While the Government is seriously considering the verbal directive of the CM, the proposal evoked mixed reactions from people associated with the Delhi University (DU). While principals of some colleges welcomed the “genuine demand” of the city Government, others rejected it as “irrational”.
The reservation for locals can take place in 12 colleges — which are fully funded by the city Government — easily, but the 16 partially-funded ones are expected to oppose the CM’s move for locals’ quota.
With high cut-offs for eligibility and a limited number of seats in the colleges, students in the national Capital find it difficult to get admission to Delhi colleges.
“The idea is to give priority to students of Delhi in colleges funded by the Delhi Government. This is the Delhi tax-payers money thus it should give some benefit to their children. This issue was raised by the AAP Government since its formation and during former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as well. This time CM has given the verbal directive and it is going to be effectively considered,” said an official of the Delhi Government.
While interacting with its volunteers in a hangout on Sunday, Kejriwal had said, “I have requested Manish ji (Sisodia) to explore the possibility of giving reservation in 28 colleges which get aid from the Delhi Government.”
“To get something like this done, the city Government cannot alone do it unless the main stakeholder which is Delhi University comes on board. There are apprehensions that the Centre Government might have issues,” said sources.
The stakeholders within the university have mixed views about the proposal.
Principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyay College Dr SK Garg told The Pioneer that the demand of the Delhi CM was “genuine”. “In 1980’s the UGC had refused to fund new colleges citing fund shortage. Then, considering the interest of its people, the Government of Delhi had come forward to fund these colleges and now it is genuine demand that the students from Delhi should get this right,” Dr Garg said.
Underlining concerns of the university being a “Central University”, Principal of the Aryabhatta College Dr Manoj Sinha called the proposal “irrational”. “The Delhi University is a Central University and it cannot have a reservation at this scale for students of Delhi alone. This way, every State will demand reservation for its students in the Central University located there.”
However, Garg objected to this logic saying that the facts change here as the colleges are funded by the city Government and tax-payers money is involved. “Here the colleges are funded entirely by the city Government thus it makes no point to say it should come under the admission guidelines for the Central University. The Central Universities located in different States are fully funded by the Centre that is why such a demand would not arise there.”
“What could be done is that the Delhi Government could pull out the 12 colleges which are fully funded by them and affiliate them with any other university like the Ambedkar University of Delhi,” said Sinha.