As Delhi University announced its third cut-off list on Wednesday night,the cut-offs for reserved categories have seen a considerable drop in several colleges. At Aditi Mahavidyalaya,the cut-offs for OBC,SC/ST and PWD categories have seen a dip of 6-13 percentage points across disciplines. In the OBC category,the cut-off for Political Science stands at 65 per cent 13 per cent below the cut-off in the second list. According to colleges,as opposed to an overwhelming number of students applying under the general category,the number of reserved category students approaching some colleges have been considerably low. Shaheed Bhagat Singh College principal P K Khurana said,There is a problem with regard to admissions under the reserved categories. We have reduced the number the cut-offs substantially in the third list. As opposed to a 1-2 per cent fall in general category cut-offs,we have reduced the cut-offs for reserved categories by around 5 per cent. We have not filled more than 10 per cent of our reserved category seats. The university administration had decentralised the admission process for reserved categories this year. Till last year,students used to be issued admission slips from the university and they would go to their respective college to seek admission. But this year,cut-offs were released for OBC,SC,ST and PWD, Khurana added. The drop in reserved category cut-offs at top colleges,however,has been marginal. This matches the trend seen in general category cut-offs at these colleges. At 96.25-99.25 for Commerce,Hindu College has reduced the cut-offs by 0.25 per cent for general category students. Similarly,the OBC cut-off has seen a fall of 0.75 per cent and stands at 93.25-96.25 per cent. The maximum drop in cut-offs was 4 per cent,in the PWD category for Sanskrit. The cut-offs for reserved category students have been kept exceptionally high by colleges. The result is that students are finding it increasingly difficult to get admission. While some colleges like SRCC,LSR and Ramjas might be getting a good number of reserved category students,others are not finding any takers, Dhani Ram,who teaches at Ramjas College,said. Khurana said,The cut-offs have been high but they have followed the trend seen in general category. This is because the colleges do not know the number of applications that they have received exclusively this time. A lot of them do not have a choice but to shoot in the dark.
