DU's admissions committee to meet today, may discuss upper caste quota

The Admissions Committee of the Delhi University will meet on Tuesday and may discuss the implementation of 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker section of the general category, sources said. The varsity's Academic Council, in its meeting which held on January 2, had decided to introduce 30 new courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in almost 20 colleges.

Some of the approved courses include Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Honours) in Bhimrao Ambedkar college, BA (Hons) in Economics in Dyal Singh college and Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa college, BA (Hons) in Philosophy in Hansraj college among others.

The post graduate courses which have been approved include Master of Arts (MA) in English in Gurunanak Dev college and Master of Science (MSc) in operational research at Shaheed Sukhdev college of Business Studies and Keshav college. The admissions committee officials, however, said that they had not received anything in writing about it till now.

Sources claimed that the committee members might initiate a discussion on the reservation issue since it will be implemented in the coming session, even though it is not on the agenda of the meeting.

The HRD Ministry announced last week that it will implement 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker section of the general category from the 2019 academic session and increase around 25 per cent seats in higher educational institutions and universities across the country.

The Rajya Sabha on January 9 approved amending the Constitution to provide 10 per cent reservation to poor candidates from general category in jobs and education, with the government terming the landmark move as "slog over sixes".

The quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).