Former Member of Parliament M. Ramadass has urged the Centre to direct Pondicherry University to provide 25 per cent reservation in all its Postgraduate courses for students belonging to Puducherry.
In a memorandum to the Minister for Human Resources Development Prakash Javadekar, Mr.Ramadass said that the university was providing reservation only in 18 of the total 62 PG courses for Puducherry students.
“There is no State University in the Union Territory to take care of the interests of the students from Puducherry. With the University admitting students from all states through an All India Entrance Examination or any other merit based selection, the students of Puducherry are at a disadvantage in securing admission. The very purpose of establishing Pondicherry University was defeated. A policy of reservation in this specific case can only satisfy the constitutional directive,” he said.
Mr. Ramadass said that a three-member committee constituted by former Vice-Chancellor J.A.K. Tareen had recommended extending reservation to all PG courses offered by the Universtiy which were not offered in Government run Colleges.
Another committee, constituted by the next Vice-Chancellor, had confirmed the findings of the earlier committee and the report was placed in the executive council. The council had approved extending 25 percent reservation for the students of the Union territory in all the PG Courses. .
However, the University, instead of implementing the policy, had referred the matter to the HRD Ministry which had not responded even after about three years. The matter still rested with the Ministry, he added. Mr Ramadass said that the University had not offered reservation in highly job oriented courses to Puducherry students resulting in intra-institutional and inter-institutional discrimination in the sphere of higher education.
Mr. Ramadass urged the Centre to consider the educational backwardness of Puducherry as a specific case and direct officials of the HRD Ministry to either agree for a deliberate policy of reservation or permit the University to take a decision in this regard by using its statusof autonomy.
