AIADMK MLA Om Sakthi Sekar on Monday said the Assembly should pass an unanimous resolution urging the Union Government to allot 25 per cent seats to students of Puducherry in Post Graduate courses and Ph.D programmes in the Pondicherry University.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Mr. Sekar said unless the Union Territory takes up the mater with Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, students of Puducherry will be deprived of higher education opportunities in the university.
The prospectus of Pondicherry University for admission of students for the academic year 2015-16 states that 25 per cent of the seats are reserved for the students of the Union Territory of Puducherry only in 18 out of 71 Post Graduate courses. Reservation to the remaining 53 courses will be given subject to the sanction of appropriate authorities, meaning MHRD.
Meanwhile, former Member of Parliament and Professor of the university said in a statement that there was no mention about the reservation to 51 Ph.d programmes offered by the university. The students of Pondicherry Territory are denied of opportunities to study in innovative and job oriented courses and hence their promising future is at stake.
He said Pondicherry University, as an autonomous institution, had all powers to take decisions on matters like admission, reservation, employment etc subject to the overall guidelines of the UGC.
When the reservation policy was introduced in 1997, the then vice Chancellor Prof.A Gnanam implemented it in 8 courses only with the approval of the Academic Council of the University.Later it was extended to 10 courses again with the approval of the University authorities.
Dr. Ramadass said the students of the Union Territory of Puducherry would forfeit a golden opportunity of studying valuable and remunerative courses this academic year if this complicated problem is not resolved with the MHRD immediately.
