Implement 69 pc quota strictly, Ponmudy tells HEIs

The admission process in the colleges and universities in the state set to begin shortly for the new academic year. Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday urged all the institutions to strictly follow the existing 69 per cent reservation in allocating seats for the students in different categories.

The Higher Education Minister’s statement came against the backdrop of Madurai Kamaraj University’s initiative to include a 10 per cent reservation for biotech courses for students with poor economic backgrounds. However, the University had withdrawn its proposal and decided to implement the 69 per cent reservation policy.

The Minister said all the admissions should be based on 69 per cent reservation at all the higher educational institutions, including Madurai Kamaraj University.

He said accordingly, for Open Competition (OC) it should be 31 per cent, the reservation of 30 per cent will be for the backward communities, for most backward communities the quota would be 20 per cent, and for Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe, the reservation will be 18 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

“We have already sent a circular to all the universities and colleges in this regard,” he said adding that the state’s stance on reservation policy has already been communicated to the Centre. “Our state is firm that it would continue to implement the 69 per cent quota in the admission process,” he added.

To a question about the delay in conducting convocation at Anna University, the Minister said the dates would be announced shortly.

Ponmudy also pointed out that since this academic year, the classes for the colleges would begin on time, full syllabus would be covered for all the courses.