[Goanet] Draft Bill (MPPEI Act, 2008) proposes 10% seats for rich NRIs in Maharastra

[Goa's Pride www.goa-world.com]

Bill proposes 10% seats for rich NRIs

1 Oct 2008, 0409 hrs IST, Hemali Chhapia,TNN







 



 
 










MUMBAI: Even as lakhs of students battle it out for every precious seat in a 
government professional college, the state has decided to alter its clie 



ntele from the economically weak and middle class to the NRIs, who come with 
their high disposal income. In a contentious move, the Maharastra government 
has decided to divert seats from the merit quota to make way for the rich and 
the mighty in its aided institutes. 

The draft bill—Maharastra Private Professional Educational Institutions 
(regulation of admissions and fees) Act, 2008—states that aided colleges will 
be allowed to give 10% of their seats in each course to foreign or non-resident 
Indians. What’s even shocking is that these students will not be subjected to 
take any entrance test, which is a pre-requisite for any student aspiring to 
enrol in a professional course. According to the draft Bill, these students 
will be admitted on the basis of “inter-se merit among applicants for such 
seats’’. 

Aided professional colleges in Maharashtra include Sir JJ College of 
Architecture, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Sardar Patel College of 
Engineering, Walchand College of Engineering and Rachna Sansad Academy of 
Architecture. In all, five engineering colleges, four pharmacy colleges, three 
architecture, 16 ayurveda, three unani and one home science college in the 
state are aided professional institutions. 

To date, admission to all state-aided institutions is based on the scores 
achieved in the government common entrance test. Students pay a nominal fee, 
which is way lower than what is charged in private professional colleges. With 
the new rule, the general category pool of seats will shrink. Currently, every 
aided college has 50% reservation for backward category students and the 
remaining seats are filled by general category students. Now that pool of seats 
will have to shared with the NRI candidates too. 
While minister for higher, technical and medical education Dilip Walse-Patil 
refused to comment on the issue, he said a group of experts, headed by the 
state law secretary, was poring through the draft Bill, before it can be 
presented in the Cabinet’s winter session. One of the committee members said 
the state has decided to “sell’’ a part of their seats in aided colleges with 
the aim of cutting the state’s burden on annual grant that is provided by the 
government. 

Currently, an aided institution either receives over 80% of its grants, which 
include recurring expenditure like salaries, from the state. “If a college 
takes in a handful of students with deep pockets, what is the harm in charging 
them more? We want aided colleges to be self sustaining, so they can also 
invest in high-end equipment and facilities,’’ said a member of the 
state-appointed committee. 

Vivek Korde, president of the Forum Against Commercialisation of Education, 
lambasted the state for adopting such a policy. “Aided institutions run largely 
by the government are the only hope for meritorious students in this age when 
professional education is getting out of reach for middle class students. Why 
does the state want to sell these seats at a high rate?’’ he said. 

Moreover, the draft Bill states that the state government holds the rights to 
set fees for these NRI students, defined as a ward or a child of an NRI. 

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