Northeast pupils left in the lurch

Northeast pupils left in the lurch

Yogita Rao

Mumbai: A communication gap between central and state governments has left several Northeast students in the lurch.
    The students have been arriving in Mumbai in the hope of getting a seat in a technical college here. But they have to contend with disappointment as institutes here closed admissions on August 15 in keeping with aSupreme Court order.
    On July 1, the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) sent a letter to state governments stating that seats be reserved in technical institutes for Northeast students. The students could take admissions till August 30, stated the MHRD letter.
    State governments in the Northeast were to issue a letter to accompany the MHRD order so that students could seek admissions. But some state governments issued the letters as late as on August 12.
    Seats are reserved for Northeast students under various central government schemes as there are not many engineering/polytechnic colleges in that region.
    Anil Hebbar of the Northeast Friendship Mission said that these students live in far-off places and it takes them at least 10-15 days to get train reservations.
    “If one goes by the MHRD letter, the students still stand a chance. But if the SC order asked colleges to close admissions by August 15, how is it the students’ fault,” said Hebbar.
    While some students who were turned away by colleges have left, others are pursuing the matter with the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) in Maharashtra. “Most of these students are from poor families and were finding it difficult to stay in Mumbai for a long period of time,” said Hebbar.
    A couple of girls from Meghalaya and Sikkim had reached the colleges allotted to them before August 15 but were denied admissions as the colleges were asked to fill up seats strictly within the sanctioned intake capacity in the BArch course.
    “It is strange that the MHRD is not aware of the SC order,” said a student.
    DTE officials claimed the SC order states that no student should be admitted under any quota in any institute after the last date (August 15), said an official. DTE director SK Mahajan was unavailable for comment. Times View: Students shouldn’t suffer T he central and state government agencies should sort out the problem between themselves; students, who do not have any role to play in this, should not get caught in the crossfire. It’s unfortunate that students have to go through this tension and trauma for the lack of coordination between two government agencies.