OBC students can still make it to their dream college

The second list may not have brought much relief to students of the general category with only a marginal dip in the percentage cut-offs. Shaswati Das reports.

The second list may not have brought much relief to students of the general category with only a marginal dip in the percentage cut-offs.

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However, students of the OBC category still have their options open in DU, with almost a 5% to 7% dip in the cut-offs in most colleges. The second cut-off list that was announced on Tuesday, brought some respite to the OBC candidates with courses such as BA (programme), history (honours) and political science (honours) announcing almost a 7% dip in cut-off rates in most colleges across DU. However, other courses such as BCom (Hons) and economics (honours) have seen only a marginal 3% to 4% drop.

"The response from OBC candidates has been much better this year. In the second list a drop of 10% is generally announced, but we have filled all the seats for BCom (Hons) and economics (honours) since they have always been the more coveted courses," said Ujjaini Ray, media coordinator, Lady Shri Ram College.

In colleges such as Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) and Ramjas College, admissions for the OBC students in popular courses such as economics (honours) have been closed, while in Miranda House, OBC admissions in political science (honours) and geography (honours) had been closed after the first cut-off list. College authorities, however, maintain that courses such as history (honours), philosophy (honours), political science (honours) and statistics (honours) have yet to receive a better response.

"We have a total of 115 seats reserved for OBC candidates, out of which economics (honours) has been completely filled. Even though 50% of the seats have been taken, we are still waiting for the OBC candidates to seek admission to the other humanities courses," said MS Rawat, principal, DCAC.

Most colleges are however, not sceptical about the allotted seats falling vacant since the university substitutes the seats that have not been filled by the OBC candidates with students from other quotas such as physically handicapped and the Kashmiri migrant quota.

"In the second list, we start reducing the cut-offs for the OBC candidates, which naturally sees an increase in OBC applicants. Despite this, if the seats remain vacant then they are either allotted to students of other quotas or the general category after the fifth list," added Ray.