delhi

Updated: Jun 12, 2016 01:35 IST

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vijay Goel might soon meet HRD minister Smriti Irani to discuss higher education in Delhi.

Goel met Sisodia on Saturday and demanded that 85% seats in 28 Delhi government funded colleges be reserved for Delhi students. He suggested that a 5% advantage be given to Delhi students in cutoffs. Goel offered to jointly visit Irani with Sisodia, who said he will consider the suggestion.

“We understand there is a gap that needs to be filled. But giving preference to Delhi students is not enough. Already 30,000 students in DU are from Delhi and adding another 1,500 students will not affect any equations. The solution is to start new affiliating universities in the city to cater to the huge demand. For this, amendments to the Delhi University Act need to be made. If Goel feels that Irani has a positive outlook towards this demand, I have no problem meeting her along with him,” Sisodia said.

The long-standing demand for reservation may however be a difficult one to fulfill since Delhi University is a Central university where there are no state-specific reservations.

State universities such as Ambedkar University, Delhi Technological University, Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology and Guru Gobind Singh IP University reserve seats for students who complete Class 12 from Delhi.

According to Goel’s memorandum to Sisodia, over two lakh students pass class 12 in Delhi each year but don’t get admission in DU because there is no reservation for them.

Full coverage on DU admissions

“The Delhi University has only 54,000 seats in 61 colleges. Children of Delhi residents are not able to get admission in colleges and courses of their own choice in their home state in spite of getting more than 60% marks. The problem is particularly acute for girl students belonging to Delhi as their parents are reluctant to send them out of Delhi for higher education. Therefore, most of the girls are compelled to discontinue their studies. Students belonging to poor families, who study in government schools, also suffer.”

Goel said there should be a benefit of 5% in DU cutoffs for Delhi students during admission.

Drawing attention to the case of students topping the Bihar board exams despite not knowing their subject well, Goel said there should be an entrance exam for admission to the premier university and colleges.