Students,parents make rosy demand for college seats under Central scheme

Members of the Students and Parents Association of India offered roses to officials at the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) on Saturday to make their demands heard.

The association has put forward a demand to colleges to offer seats under the Tuition Fee Waiver (TFW) scheme to the students. There are reportedly 20 such colleges this year as per the associations estimate. Going by last years statistics,the state lost as many as 1,600 seats under the scheme.

Hemandra Bagdi,president of the association,said: We have offered roses,but can also resort to other means if the management does not respond to our demands. There are over 6,000 seats for Engineering and Pharmacy (diploma and degree courses) taken together. And,10 per cent of this is under the Tuition Fee Waiver (TFW) scheme,which is meant for the benefit of the economically weaker,physically challenged and girl students.

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Bagdi added: Colleges that deny admission under the scheme should be strictly punished. It is the responsibility of the GTU to bring them

under the scanner. We will be submitting a written complaint to the GTU on Monday.

The All India Council for Technical Education had introduced the TFW scheme for women,economically backward (annual income less than Rs 2.5 lakh from all sources) and physically challenged meritorious students in 2007.

The scheme was formulated to promote technical education covering degree and diploma programmes in Engineering and Technology,Pharmacy,Business Administration,Computer Applications,Architecture,Hotel Management and Catering Technology (HMCT),Applied Arts and Crafts among.

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Until the academic year 2008-2009,only 800 out of 24,000 seats in Engineering and Pharmacy colleges were filled in Gujarat under the scheme.

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