Dy CM shoots down unions' request of adding another 10 pc to management quote

While several representatives from various unions unhappy over the existing five per cent management quota in junior colleges approached the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar with a request of increasing it by another 10 per cent CAP committee members gave a detailed presentation to Pawar that the increase proposed by the unions was uncalled foru00a0 Assistant Education Director Pune division Balasaheb Owhal who was present at the meeting said ldquoBesides representatives from unions and CAP committee members from a few junior colleges also attended the Tuesdayrsquos meet None of them demanded any increase in quota reserved for Class XI admissionsrdquo He alleged that the unions only wanted to mint money and have been trying to subdue CAP by applying pressure tactics While the correspondent was interacting with Owhal a few members of political outfits arrived at the spot and said that the CAP should allow at least a handful of the colleges to make additional admissions One of them said ldquoRather than sticking to rule book like every year CAP should consider some of our lsquorequestsrsquo When we approached colleges they asked us to get written permission from CAP And here they arenrsquot entertaining us at allrdquo Rubbishing the need to increase the existing quote Owhal said ldquoThe CAP system has been in place for Class XI admissions for the last 18 years Moreover students get admissions in college on their merit You can see the contradiction Despite thousands of seats lying vacant studentsrsquo unions are demanding an additional 10 per cent increase If the government agrees their demand then several colleges on the outskirts which are already facing paucity of students will get desertedrdquo Commenting on the issue CAP Chairperson and Deputy Director of Education Pune division Suman Shinde said ldquoAt the meeting Deputy CM took stock of the recently concluded admissions He did not issue any directive to increase the number of seats But he cleared that a college can submit the proposal in my office in case it feels the need to increase the number of existing seatsrdquo Distance matters Nationalist Congress Party NCP vicepresident for Shivajinagar constituency Shekhar Jori said he received several complaints from students about getting colleges that were far away ldquoHow can CAP expect a student residing in Deccan to attend college in Aundhrdquo he said u00a0Another activists Suresh Jain said though CAP officials claimed that the admissions went smoothly some students were allotted college that were more than 20 kilometres away from their homes and the only solution to the problem was government giving permission to junior colleges to increase the quotau00a0 Norms flouted It was learnt that despite the CAP mandate to colleges of not exceeding the existing five per cent management quota several colleges were accused of flouting the norm and gave admissions to students referred by the unions So this year the CAP committee kept a tight vigil on the mission process to curb the alleged malpractices that occurred during last yearrsquos admission process Donrsquot ask Apart from rejecting the unionsrsquo proposal Pawar shot down their demand of asking by CAP Chairperson Suman Shinde to take back the police complaint she had registered against Youth Sena leader Kiran Sali Shinde had lodged a complaint against Sali last week for obstructing government official from performing her duties u00a0 50995u00a0Students admitted in junior colleges this year under the CAP 478u00a0Number of colleges in Pune and PimpriChinchwad areas