The Hindu Business Line : Unaided institutions offer 50 pc seats on reservation

THE All India Convention of Unaided Professional Educational Institutions (engineering, medical and others) has expressed its willingness to offer up to 50 per cent of seats on reservation basis but demanded that flexibility of fixing fee structure should be left to the managements.

The offer comes in the wake of a recent Supreme Court judgment stating that the Government's role on admission and reservation criteria in unaided professional institutions was not permissible and said that the admissions should be only on merit and transparent.

The verdict also stated that the fee structure in self- financing institutions could be decided by monitoring committee constituted by the respective State Governments until a proper legislation is passed.

Following this, various social and political circles represented the Government for a suitable legislation in Parliament/ State Legislatives to restore the rule of reservations in the professional institutions.

In the background of the Supreme Court judgment, Mr V. Malakonda Reddy, the Convention Convenor told newspersons, "We are willing to offer up to 50 per cent of seats on reservation basis. But, we want to have the discretion in filling the balance 50 per cent seats and also flexibility to fix the fee structure."

Before the Central Government proposes to make any legislation in this connection, the managements of unaided professional institutions are making efforts to arrive at a national consensus. An all India convention is being organised on October 1 in Hyderabad, Dr Reddy said.

The National Coordination Committee of Unaided Professional Educational Institutions has also urged the All India Council for Technical Education to come out with a uniform fee structure for all the unaided professional institutions.

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