ISM, Dhanbad

Jamshedpur/Dhanbad, April 10: Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, and National Institute of Technology, Adityapur,

welcomed today’s Supreme Court verdict paving way for 27 per cent quota for OBC students in institutes of higher learning.

With the “creamy layer” being excluded and no seats pruned for general category candidates, there was hardly a room for resentment among officials and students at the institutes run by the Union ministry of human resource development.

The dean of students’ welfare at ISM, P.S. Gupta, said the decision was “actually helpful” for poor students who are trying hard to get into such institutions.

“We welcome the move of the court. We will abide by the government decision to implement the quota,” said Akhileshwar Mishra, the NIT, Adityapur, acting director.

Vaibhav Bhamoriya, a former ISM student working with rural development in Ahmedabad, said the court’s decision “is encouraging and the competition will be no less”.

Anshul Jain, a fourth-year student, said the institutions should ensure good primary education so that students can face competitions easily.

Earlier, the number of seats for BTech in 2006 was 658, which was raised to 730 since last session — a five per cent increase in the first phase.

In NIT too, officials said that reservation for OBCs would in no way hamper admission of general candidates. “We worked out a plan of increasing the seats by 54 per cent in three phases. Instead of implementing the seat hike of 54 per cent at one go we will raise it by 18 per cent each year,” said R.J. Singh, the NIT dean (academics).

The students of NIT lauded the move of the Supreme Court. “I welcome the verdict of upholding the OBC quota as it was pending for a long time. It will provide an opportunity for the OBC candidates to reap the benefit,” said Prabhat Kumar, a final-year student of NIT.

NIT officials, however, admitted that there is a need for infrastructure development at the college. “We need to develop infrastructure facilities like classrooms and hostels to accommodate more students,” said an official.