Gogoi seeks Sonia’s intervention

By Our Correspondent GUWAHATI, June 13 – In view of the changed guidelines for admission into National Institutes of Technology (NITs) issued by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has taken up the matter with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, requesting her intervention so that students’ from Assam are not deprived of seats in NITs outside the State. The Chief Minister has also written letters to the Prime Minister and the HRD Minister Arjun Singh in this regard. Earlier, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today flayed the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development for its decision to change the seat allotment pattern into the NITs.The Ministry, through a notification issued on June 9, it may be mentioned, had decided that from 2008-09 onwards, admissions into the NITs for outside the State (non-domicile) seat would be on all India merit basis.Earlier, though 50 per cent of the seats in the NITs were reserved for the domicile students, the rest were filled up by the non-domicile students from across the country. Moreover, an equal number of seats were also kept reserved in the other NITs of the country. The country, at present, has 20 NITs.Asserting that the change in pattern of the seat allotment in the NITs would adversely affect the cause of the students in Assam and other backward States in the country, the students’ body alleged that the decision is a part of the step-motherly treatment meted out to the people of Assam both by the United Progressive Alliance Government at Delhi and the Congress-led State Government.“The new guidelines mean that the State would be deprived of as many as 230 seats in NITs, which will have a deterrent impact on the career prospects of the local students,” stated AASU general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi.“Such an unfair step would never be accepted and we warn both the Central and the State Government not to play with the sentiments of the people of Assam,” he pointed out.“It is because of the lacklustre attitude of the Tarun Gogoi Government that the decision was taken even without the consent of the State Government,” rued Gogoi.

Source: assam tribune