NEW DELHI: As many as 7,550 students were admitted to various undergraduate courses at the University of Delhi by the second day of the first round of cut-off but the number of EWS category students coming to the most popular colleges in the varsity’s North Campus was almost nil.
At the university’s prominent Shri Ram College of Commerce, which kept its cut-off for Economics Honours at 98.75 per cent, the total number of admissions to the course till Saturday was 170, including one from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
At Hindu College, which pegged the highest cut-off for Political Science Honours at 99 per cent, the department admitted 76 students against 43 seats. “About 40 of them are from the unreserved category,” Jagdish Chander Head of Department, Political Science at Hindu College said, adding, “There hasn’t even one from the EWS category so far.”
This year after the EWS reservation was introduced, about 6,000 seats were added, taking the total number of seats for UG courses to 62,000. The cut-offs for students belonging to the EWS category were separate and marginally lesser than that for the general category.
As many as 9,091 applications were received under the EWS category against the 6,000 seats.
Academic Council member Rasal Singh said, “There are fewer applications this time under EWS category due to lack of information and awareness about this newly introduced category. Moreover, the difference is marginal between the cutoffs of UR and EWS categories. Mainly these two reasons are responsible for almost nil admissions in first cutoff.”
He further said, “Delhi University is determined to fill all the reserve category seats and will organise special drives to fill these seats to ensure social justice and equal representation.”Singh said that these seats won’t be converted to general category. “Earlier, the leftover seats of the reserved category used to be converted. It won’t happen like that this year. Only SC and ST seats are interchangeable if the university fails to fill them up,” he said.
He further added that the cut-off will be dropped till all the EWS seats are filled up.
The first cut-offs announced by the DU were on the higher side, making it a stiff ask for students, who come from the far-flung corners of the country, to get through to some of the most sought after campuses.