Many OBC students don’t use 10% score relaxation
The OBC story in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is
that of bitter-sweet success. Several OBC students did not use the relaxation to
get into tech schools. On the other hand, 436 seats reserved for OBC
candidates had to be transferred to the general pool as the number of reserved category
students from the non-creamy layer was not enough to fill up the quota.
The Indian School of Mines at Dhanbad saw the maximum shortfall in OBC candidates
and the school offered an additional 123 seats to general category students. The
new IIT in Ropar too had very few OBC takers; 92 seats meant for them were opened
to the general category pool. Even at the Powai institute, six seats were added
to the general pool.
In nine of the 17 institutes, we had to convert some seats meant for OBC students
as the seats were vacant. There weren’t as many takers, said officials from IIT-Kanpur,
which was in-charge of JEE-2011.
Last year too, 469 OBC seats were transferred to the open category. In 2009, 51
seats were added to the general pool as there were not enough OBC students even
after a 10% relaxation in scores.
Each year, some reserved category students make it to the common merit list. Many
use the 10% relaxation to enhance ranks and opt for an attractive stream. So IITs
put out a common merit list for general category students but separate lists are
put out for each reserved category. Seats are apportioned for quota students based
on the total seats available in each course.
Courtesy: Times of India
