Congress, BJP leaders jointly call on Vice President to press for 25 % reservation for local students in PU

BJP and Congress MPs from Puducherry seek 25% reservation for local students at Pondicherry University, meeting Vice President.

In a rare coming together for a common cause by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, the two Members of Parliament from Puducherry and the heads of Puducherry unit of both parties, jointly met Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar to seek his intervention in obtaining 25 % reservation for Puducherry students in the courses conducted by the Pondicherry University at its campus in Kalapet near here.

Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and BJP Puducherry unit president S. Selvaganabathy and Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and chief of Pradesh Congress Committee V. Vaithilingam met Mr. Dhankhar at his Parliament office to press for 25% reservation of seats for local students at the institute. They met Mr. Dhankhar as he is the Chancellor of the University. 

Mr. Vaithilingam told The Hindu that he was taking up the issue of 25% reservation in PU with the Central government for some time now. “When I was going to give the representation to the Vice President, Mr. Selvaganabathy was in Rajya Sabha and so I invited him to come along. We both met Mr. Dhankhar and explained to him the need for reservation for Puducherry students. He was very positive in his response and he has assured to follow up the subject” the PCC chief said.

The University, the MP said since its inception in 1985, used to allot 25% of seats to local students in eight courses and subsequently the quota was extended to 21 courses. The University, at present, runs 15 schools, 51 departments/centres and 158 PG and research programmes, he said.

“However, the reservation was not extended to the new courses started after 2013 for want of approval from the Ministry of Education. For the Union Territory, there is no other university other than PU. In the absence of domicile-based reservation, Puducherry students are very much affected because of the competition involved in getting admission through All India Quota,” Mr Vaithilingam said.

The MP said he has urged Mr. Dhankhar to prevail upon the Ministry of Education to extend the 25% reservation to the students of Puducherry in all the courses run by PU.