No quota for local students in Pondicherry University: VC

PUDUCHERRY: Pondicherry University Vice Chancellor Gurmeet Singh said Tuesday there was no scope of having a separate quota for students of the Union Territory to gain admission into various disciplines available in the varsity. The Pondicherry University is a centrally-sponsored higher education institution established through an Act of Parliament.
Talking to reporters here, Singh said only statutory reservations were available for students in keeping with the guarantees contained in the Constitution and other statues.
On demands from various quarters and a resolution adopted by the territorial Assembly seeking special quota for the students of the Union Territory in various courses in the university, the VC said, "India is one country and the statutorily approved quotas of reservation would alone be available.
"There is no scope for any reservation for the local students," he asserted.
Singh, however, said even in the absence of such a quota for local students, a number of students from the Union Territory had joined the varsity.
The vice chancellor said Sri Aurobindo Chair, M Karunanidhi Chair and a Tamil School for Literature and Performing Arts will be started soon in the university.
The Tamil school will take up the work of translating classical Tamil literature into Hindi, he said.
The Puducherry government had proposed to set up a chair in the name of former Tamil Nadu chief minister late M Karunanidhi.
"The proposal will be taken up with the Union HRD Ministry for statutory approval," Singh said.
Stating that students of the university will take up door-to-door survey to assess the health status of the villagers coming under the jurisdiction of the affiliated colleges, the VC noted that solid waste management and the education status of the children in the villages will also be looked into.
A village headman has been fixed in each of the 125 villages to be covered under the survey, he added.