Indore: In a major jolt to students, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) “reduced” 26 per cent seats in professional courses offered by its teaching departments.
The university on Thursday had released guidelines for admission in professional courses with seat counts.
A closer look at the guidelines revealed that the seats hiked last year to grant 10 per cent quota to students belonging to economically weaker section (EWS) were not advertised.
In fact, the intake of session 2018-19 was advertised.
The university’s defence is that there is ambiguity over reservation so it did not advertise the increased lot.
“We just advertised the count of seats in session 2018-19. However, we will set the count right once there is clarity over reservation policy. The distribution of seats will be as per the government policy,” said Dr Akhilesh Singh asking students not to get panicked see the current seat count.
Last year, the Parliament had made a resolution for granting 10 per cent reservation to EWS students.
The central government had stated that the 10 per cent reservation to EWS student should be above sanctioned intake.
The Centre had stated that the reservation to EWS should be granted in such a way that it does not affect the existing reservation percentage to SC/ST/OBC and the number of seats of general category in session 2018-19.
The centre had stated that the institutions would have to increase their intake by 26 per cent to grant 10 per cent quota of EWS.
Subsequently, the state government had directed government colleges and universities to increase 26 per cent seats so that 10 per cent quota could be granted to EWS students.
The university through an order increased the seats for session 2019-20.
But this year, it instead of displaying count of seats for session 2019-20 mentioned seat count of session 2018-19.
After protests seats hiked last year
Last year, the university initially had increased merely 10 per cent seats instead of 26 per cent seats which was in violation of government order. After protests by student leader Tejprakash Rane, the university had increased the seats by 26 percent. Rane stated that the university can’t reduce seats in violation of norms set by the government and deprive hundreds of students of admissions. “If the increased lot is not mentioned in the guidelines, we will stage a protest in the interest of students,” he added.
