TNN,
Pune edition, 02nd Aug 2008
Mumbai: Expansion in the pool of seats at the 13
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) may have spelt good
news, but that has seen a fall in the entry levels at these
hallowed institutions. If total seats went up from 5,537
to 6,992 this year, the final general category cut-off has
fallen from 206 in 2007-08 to 180 in 2008-09 out of a total
of 489. Worse, just a handful of Scheduled Tribe (ST) students
have got into the six new IITs that were set up overnight
by the Union HRD ministry.
Absurdly, 397 Scheduled Caste (SC) and ST seats are going
abegging and the IITs also failed to fill all the Other
Backward Classes (OBC) — almost 35 lie vacant. This
despite the “generous” relaxation that the IITs
provide reserved category candidates. If the last general
category student who walked past the IIT gates scored 180,
an SC or ST candidate had to score 104. These vacant seats
cannot be converted to open category seats.
Speaking about the dip in overall scores this year, former
IIT-Madras director P.V. Indiresan told TOI, “The
drop in cut-offs is significant. One reason could be that
the IITs took in many more students this year as compared
to last year. But there are other concerns too, including
the fact that the JEE exam has become outdated. Also, the
quality of reserved category candidates admitted is being
compromised upon as more students need to be taken in.”
While none of the directors went on record about the vacant
reserved category seats, they felt that the issue is likely
to get aggravated over the years. As the OBC quota rolls
out and seats go up, it is going to be a “nightmare”
to fill the expanding pool of SC/ST seats. In fact, IIT-Bombay
director Ashok Misra had pointed this out to the Veerappa
Moily Oversight Committee. A senior IIT faculty member pointed
out that marks for reserved category students were being
relaxed “beyond imagination”. He added, “A
variation in the quality of students is rather evident in
the classroom. And that is not healthy.”
