OBC Seats not to be filled by General Candidates: DU
Delhi University on 8th August issued the notice, which states that the 27% seats 
reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates cannot be filled by general category students. This OBC cutoff has finally cleared the cloud of confusion and brought relief to thousands of students and parents.
As per the order, if seats remain vacant colleges will have to lower cut-off percentage by more than 10%. Till last year, these vacant seats were converted into general category seats if OBC students fitting the bill were not found.
The above news might have brought smile for some and sadness to many others; it has left colleges in a lurch.
According to Poonam Verma, principal, Shaheed Sukhdev College for Business Studies, ‘Since the college hold an entrance test for all our courses, the authorities have an exact idea about the number of candidates that will come from the general, SC/ST and OBC category.
The Principal also said that they were unable to fill some OBC seats and lowered the cut-off for both the general and the OBC categories to accommodate more OBC students. ‘After the verdict came out, there are some things we need to clarify. Only then will a clear picture emerge,' she added.
In the meantime, other colleges said there will be some problems in filling the vacant seats. According to them they are left with very few seats in the OBC category. According to Bhim Sen Singh, Principal, Kirori Mal College, the drop in cut-off marks is also not much, which is around 1%-2%. The seats will be filled easily but students joining late will have problem to cope up.
However, some colleges are still trying to gauge the number of vacant seats in each course. Hindu College might also lower down cut-offs for OBC to a small extent in its humanities courses.
In some off-campus colleges, the directive by the university prohibiting conversion of the OBC seats into general category seats has come with its own problems. Most fear mass withdrawals by students if more sought-after colleges bring down OBC cut-offs.
Source: Prachi Srivastava (Shiksha Team)
Date: 10th August, 2011
