Maharashtra government scraps social quotas in minority colleges; FYJC merit list in Mumbai likely to face delay amid confusion over reservation

Time of India

6 days ago

Mumbai: Even as Maharashtra govt issued a government resolution (GR) on Monday, following a court directive, clarifying that Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Category reservations will not apply to minority colleges, officials are still allotting seats under the altered seat matrix in minority colleges.
Those in the know have raised serious doubts about whether the first FYJC merit list will be released on Thursday or if a new date will be announced.
It is believed that after Monday's GR, several minority colleges called in-house aspirants on Tuesday, asked them to fill their forms again and submit the same with the fresh date of Tuesday, and asked their parents to pay fees on Friday.
SSC exams were held early this year, and the results came sooner than expected — on May 13.
But for lakhs of Class 10 students in Maharashtra, that headstart dissolved into a slow wait with govt first trying new centralised admission systems and then wanting to impose new reservations in minority institutes. Last year, SSC results were announced on May 27, and the first list was released on June 27.
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"We are trying hard to see if we can declare the first merit list on Thursday. The entire team is working to allot seats to in-house students in minority colleges where reservation was cancelled.
We will consolidate all the information on Wednesday and take a final call on whether the first merit list can be declared on Thursday evening or if we need to give students more time," said a senior official from the FYJC admissions cell.
What was meant to be a smooth transition has turned jagged, said principals. The first merit list for FYJC admissions has now been delayed multiple times. "Delays were caused because a number of minority institutions decided to take govt to court and because of low participation in a govt tender," said an official from the education department.
A court battle over reservations — now overturned by the GR — only deepened the cracks.
"This time the intention was good," a vice-principal said. "But children have lost faith. They turn to integrated courses offered by coaching classes, they stop believing in colleges."
Over 12.7 lakh students took part in this year's Central Admission Process, the state's first fully digital push. But for many, the online system was more of a bottleneck than a bridge. "The website kept crashing," said one parent. "All the benefits of early exams and early results are lost."