E-Paper
PU gives written assurance about taking up OBC quota in admissions
Students For Society (SFS) had refused to call off their protest after the first letter, citing that admissions had not been included
After giving protesting students a detailed timeline and written assurance for taking up OBC reservations in recruitment, Panjab University (PU) authorities on Tuesday gave another assurance to students that both admissions and recruitment will be taken up on the earlier proposed 27% reservation formula for OBC students in which 12% of these seats will be reserved for OBC students from Punjab.
Students For Society (SFS) had refused to call off their protest after the first letter, citing that admissions had not been included. After this, the assurance given by PU registrar YP Verma mentions that the PU vice-chancellor has forwarded these recommendations to the regulation committee. If approved it will go before the syndicate and then eventually the senate for approval. SFS has temporarily suspended their protest after 56 days.
Currently, the overall ratio for admission seats between general and reserved categories is 55.5% for general and 44.5% for reserved. Adding the extra seats will take the proportion of reserved seats over the cap imposed by the Centre of 50%. For this, Panjab University will also have to add extra seats for general students and extra funding will also be needed, which will also have to be decided between the Centre and state.
This will also not be the first time the university has tried to implement OBC reservations for students. In the 2000s also the university had implemented OBC reservations as per central rules and asked UGC for the funds for the extra seats. However, UGC did not allow this.
In a letter in 2011, UGC claimed that the central policy applies only to centrally funded institutions and PU in its special status as an inter-state body corporate doesn’t qualify for this.
