NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Karol Bagh, Vishesh Ravi placed a request for amendment of Delhi Professional Colleges or Institutions Act, 2007, in the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
“I came across several incidents of deserving meritorious students being bereft of the benefits of this Act due to the definition of Delhi candidate and hence decided to take up the matter,” said Ravi.
He added that the current definition of a ‘Delhi candidate’ as per the Act defines the candidate as one who has appeared or passed the qualifying examination from a recognised school or institution situated in Delhi. “I have proposed that the definition be changed to ‘one who has appeared or passed the qualifying examination from a recognised school or institution situated in Delhi or is a resident of Delhi’,” he added.
“This is possible when the GNCT of Delhi amends the Section 2 (f) of the Act by choosing the ‘Institutional or Residential’ method to decide the ‘Delhi candidate’ in order to remove this barrier to access higher education opportunities currently faced by Delhi residents,” he said.
Ravi explained that the amendment in this Act is bound to greatly benefit the SC-ST candidates. “It will pave the way for them to get their constitutionally guaranteed quota of reservation as per government norms regarding the same, as opposed to the current situation where they battle for seats in the 15% of seats available for non-Delhi candidates in reserved category.” the MLA said.