06-13-2007, 01:26 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Another first from Stephen's: Quota for Dalit Christians </b>
Staff Reporter | New Delhi
St Stephen's officiating principal Valson Thampu on Tuesday said that of the proposed 40 per cent reservation for Christians in the college, 25 percent would be earmarked for Dalit Christians. This, said Thampu, has been done to help the poor among the Christian. Thampu believes that his decision on increasing the reservation from 30 to 40 per cent is likely to sail through at the Supreme Council meeting on Tuesday.
The matter is all set to find favour with the Supreme Council of the college, which is meeting on Tuesday evening. The faculty members of the college will put their views - in written - before Council in the meeting and Governing Body will decide upon it on Wednesday.
When asked to define Dalit Christian, which is still to be notified by Government, media coordinator of the college Vinod Chowdhry said, <b>"This question should be addressed to Reverend Thampu when he addresses a Press conference on the issue on Wednesday."</b>
"We have proposed to increase the reservation for Christians in the college from 30 to 40 per cent. Out of this 40 per cent, 25 per cent will be reserved for the Dalit Christians," said Thampu while adding that the decision is aimed at helping the poor and downtrodden among Christians.
"The TA Pai Judgement given by the Supreme Court in 2002 clearly states that minority institutions should reserve 50 per cent seats for the minority category students. We are making it upto 40 per cent only," he said.
He said that the teachers of the college would hopefully support him in the noble cause. Reacting to the 'ifs and buts' of some of the faculty members making apprehensions about the dilution the 'centre of excellence' status of the college, Thampu said these are baseless ideas.
He said that one should try to accommodate them and help them in getting ahead rather than making wrong apprehensions. The 20 per cent reservation for other categories - 5 per cent for the sports quota and 15 per cent for the SC/ST, disabled and children/widows/wives of soldiers killed or disabled will remain as usual.<b> It will however lessen the total number of seats for the general category students by around 40.</b>
Some of the teachers of the college, however, kept insisting on the fact that the college should first evolve some 'support system' for the Dalit Christians. "There should be the provision of evening classes and extra tutorials for such candidates. They should be made able enough to compete with the other students. Otherwise there is no use forcing them on the college," said one of the teachers. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I hope Dalit Christian Network will help them. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Staff Reporter | New Delhi
St Stephen's officiating principal Valson Thampu on Tuesday said that of the proposed 40 per cent reservation for Christians in the college, 25 percent would be earmarked for Dalit Christians. This, said Thampu, has been done to help the poor among the Christian. Thampu believes that his decision on increasing the reservation from 30 to 40 per cent is likely to sail through at the Supreme Council meeting on Tuesday.
The matter is all set to find favour with the Supreme Council of the college, which is meeting on Tuesday evening. The faculty members of the college will put their views - in written - before Council in the meeting and Governing Body will decide upon it on Wednesday.
When asked to define Dalit Christian, which is still to be notified by Government, media coordinator of the college Vinod Chowdhry said, <b>"This question should be addressed to Reverend Thampu when he addresses a Press conference on the issue on Wednesday."</b>
"We have proposed to increase the reservation for Christians in the college from 30 to 40 per cent. Out of this 40 per cent, 25 per cent will be reserved for the Dalit Christians," said Thampu while adding that the decision is aimed at helping the poor and downtrodden among Christians.
"The TA Pai Judgement given by the Supreme Court in 2002 clearly states that minority institutions should reserve 50 per cent seats for the minority category students. We are making it upto 40 per cent only," he said.
He said that the teachers of the college would hopefully support him in the noble cause. Reacting to the 'ifs and buts' of some of the faculty members making apprehensions about the dilution the 'centre of excellence' status of the college, Thampu said these are baseless ideas.
He said that one should try to accommodate them and help them in getting ahead rather than making wrong apprehensions. The 20 per cent reservation for other categories - 5 per cent for the sports quota and 15 per cent for the SC/ST, disabled and children/widows/wives of soldiers killed or disabled will remain as usual.<b> It will however lessen the total number of seats for the general category students by around 40.</b>
Some of the teachers of the college, however, kept insisting on the fact that the college should first evolve some 'support system' for the Dalit Christians. "There should be the provision of evening classes and extra tutorials for such candidates. They should be made able enough to compete with the other students. Otherwise there is no use forcing them on the college," said one of the teachers. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I hope Dalit Christian Network will help them. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->