The Students’ Association of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) on Friday announced its decision to hold demonstrations on the campus on July 30 against alleged irregularities in the admission of students from the reservation categories
In a press release, the students’ association stated, “FTII published their final merit list for the academic year 2021 on 26/07/2022. It is painfully visible for us to see that yet again, the authorities have made a gross mockery of the provisions of Reservation by which these admissions are to take place. Many seats as well as waitlist positions in the OBC, SC and ST categories have not been filled, citing reasons of ineligibility.”
SC, ST, OBC students are protesting against Film & Television Institute of India authorities for not following reservation policy in admission of students for its current academic year. Please amplify. If the protest were against a BJP nominee, the news would have everywhere. pic.twitter.com/02DeAQ81dN
— sagar choudhary (@sagar_reporter) July 29, 2022
“When questioned, the authorities mentioned that many candidates did not pass their cut-off percentages (45% for OBC (NCL) and Gen EWS, 40% for SC and ST and Gen PwD and 50% for General). There is no transparency about how these figures are arrived upon and by whom, not to mention that the validity of this criteria is questionable by itself,” it further said.
The student body said that due to this ‘arbitrary rule’, every year the authorities can claim that they did not find suitable candidates in the reserved categories and fill in the seats set for them with students from the General category.
The body said that the orientation and interview process accounts for 80% of the total grade for admission to the institute and that leaves the process ambiguous to those who want to question the reasons for which some candidates have been deemed ineligible. “Even so, it is evident that a bias exists in how candidates are evaluated and deemed ineligible as our reserved seats remain unoccupied by aspirants from those categories across different departments. Additionally, the orientation and interview were conducted online this time, highlighting further inequalities with which candidates were attempting their admission,” it said.
The press release called this phenomenon a ‘growing trend’ that they observed consistently over the years in an effort to put a ‘filter’ on the incoming members of the institute as well as to mute the voices of students against ‘attacks’ on basic social rights. “The student community considers this a blatant violation of the laws of reservation hiding under the garb of self-made rules of the institute. We firmly stand against their values reflected in the merit list and ask that they re-evaluate the result,” it said.
“It is also highly questionable why only candidates from the General category are able to clear their cut off, while those from other categories aren’t. By this process, the seats supposed to be left open for all in the General category also remain closed for those from other categories,” it said.
Courtesy: Siasat