IIMC, IIT-KGP to go ahead with quota implementation

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 29, 2007
Despite the Supreme Court stay on 27 per cent OBC reservation in elite central educational institutions like IITs and IIMs, IIM Calcutta (IIMC) and IIT Kharagpur will not stall phased implementation of the quota from this year until they receive a government order in his regard.
IIT Kharagpur will take 9 per cent OBC students this year while IIM Calcutta’s target is 3 per cent.
The IIT-JEEs form this year had already mentioned OBC as one of the categories. The exam is scheduled for April 8 with the results due by the end of June.
“We are aware of the Supreme Court order but our process of implementing the quota in phase manner from this year will continue until we get a directive from the government to do otherwise. We will go by the government order and not by the Supreme Court order or media reports. We are continuing with our process,” said S. K. Dube, director, IIT Kharagpur.
After the publication of CAT results on January 2, IIMC had come up with a new list of OBC category students on January 31. These students were interviewed and even short-listed. The offer letters will be given by mid April. “Thankfully we have not sent the offer letters yet. But we cannot close the admissions process for OBC’s if we do not get a government order. Since it is a Supreme Court judgment I am sure the government will issue some sort of order in this regard and we will follow that,” said Prof. Anindya Sen, dean of programmes and research initiative at IIMC.
But though the IIT’s have time till June to go ahead or stall implementation of the quota, IIMC desperately needs a government order in this regard by the second week of April to avoid confusion over admitting 3 per cent OBC students this year. On top of that, unlike IIT Kharagpur, which has kept the general seats intact and is adding up 9 per cent seats for OBC, IIMC has added 3 per cent OBC seats and have increased the same percentage of seats in the general category.
The question now is even if quota implementation is stalled what will happen to the extra 3 per cent general category seats? “If we receive a government order in this regard asking us to stall implementation we will have to think about what should be done about the additional three per cent seats in the general category,” said Prof. Ashish Bhattacharya, a member of the CAT group and chairman, admissions, IIMC.
While IIT Kharagpur is not immediately deciding on the increase in student fees because of the implementation of OBC quota, IIMC’s general body will meet on April 1 to decide on increases in students fee in the wake of implementation of quota. A fee hike is likely because the institute already has a Rs 1 Lakh deficit per student and with 600 students currently in campus the deficit has gone up to Rs 6 crore. “We are already running in deficit and irrespective of the implementation of quota the general body will take its ultimate decision in this regard on April 1,” said Prof. Bhattacharya.
While IIMC has sought about Rs 147 crore for infrastructure development and 50 acres of land, it has been allotted only Rs 47.5 crore. While IIT Kharagpur has asked for Rs. 680 crore from MHRD for implementation of OBC quota. The funds in this regard are due to be allotted to all the institutions from the coming financial year, which may get stalled if the OBC quota implementation is held-up by the government.
mou.hindustantimes@gmail.com

BOXES

IIT-Kharagpur’s OBC implementation plan till date
q IIT-KGP likely to introduce 334 seats under OBC category in 2007.
q 125 seats will go to undergraduate programme and 210 seats will be introduced to the post graduate programmes
q The seats in general category will remain intact.
q 60 faculties to be recruited in 2007-2008 academic session for this purpose.
q IIT-KGP has asked for Rs. 680 crore from MHRD for implementation of OBC quota.
q Nine percent seats to be added in OBC quota every year till 2009.
q The student’s strength to go up by 54 percent, that is additional 6500 students will be in IIT-KGP campus in 2014.
q All total 500 additional faculties by 2012 to cater to 54 percent extra students.
q The infrastructure will be developed over a period of seven years.

IIM Calcutta OBC implementation plan till date
q IIMC to implement 3 percent OBC quota from 2007 academic session
q Fresh list of OBC candidates will be published by January 31.
q About 50 students will be called and 9 students will be finally offered seat
q IIMC had asked for Rs. 147 crore (approx) for infrastructure development and 50 acers of land.
q The institute has been allotted only Rs.47.5 crore for the purpose.
q Faculty feels the fund is not enough for infrastructure development & maintenance of academic quality.
q While IIMC recommended 1:7 teachers-students ratio the center has cut it to 1:14
q The medical facility in the campus too is not enough to handle the extra population