This story is from July 16, 2019

Activist group seeks 50% quota for tribal students in CTU

The Forum for Development of North Andhra (FDNA), an activist group, on Tuesday demanded the central government to amend Central Universities Act to accord 50% reservation for tribal students in the planned Central Tribal University (CTU) in Andhra Pradesh.
Activist group seeks 50% quota for tribal students in CTU
VISAKHAPATNAM: The Forum for Development of North Andhra (FDNA), an activist group, on Tuesday demanded the central government to amend Central Universities Act to accord 50% reservation for tribal students in the planned Central Tribal University (CTU) in Andhra Pradesh.
In a letter to Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the FDNA said that it has “learnt that even in the present bill there is no provision for additional reservations for tribal students”.

“The Lok Sabha has passed a bill to amend Central Universities Act for establishing a CTU in Andhra Pradesh as per the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014. Though the state government has acquired land at Kothavalasa in Vizianagaram district five years back and the central expert team has also approved all the technical matters, very surprisingly, the central government has taken more than 5 years to pass a bill for establishing the CTU,” the letter said.
The bill has to be passed by Rajya Sabha and get the assent of the President in order to get it implemented, it said.
“Because of this inordinate delay on part of the central government, not even a single rupee was spent so far for construction of the buildings, though many times government has announced that budget is sanctioned for this. Even though Andhra University is appointed as mentor university and has announced that classes will be commenced from this academic year, it is also not done and even notification for admissions is also not given till date,” the FDNA said.

It said that even in the present bill there is no provision for additional reservations for tribal students. “We have earlier requested you to make a provision in bill for allotment 50% of seats for tribal students, without which it will not be beneficial to the tribal and the very purpose of CTU will be defeated,” the activist group said.
It requested the HRD minister to take the steps necessary to get the act into force immediately, appoint a fulltime vice-chancellor and permanent teaching and non-teaching staff and allot sufficient funds for the speedy construction of the university buildings and to pay staff expenses.
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