Agitating students meet President Kalam

May 04, 2006 20:32 IST
UNI

Agitating students on Thursday met President A P J Abdul Kalam and submitted a memorandum, demanding roll-back of the proposal to provide 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in Central Government educational institutions.

''We are against caste-based reservation. Higher education must be merit based. Only those students who meet the merit criteria should be in these institutions,'' said Aditayaraj Kaul spokesperson for the United Students which called on Dr Kalam at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

The Reservation Ruckus

Talking to UNI, Kaul said a five-member delegation of the United Students, which represents pupils from the Delhi University, the IP University and several schools, submitted the 21-point memorandum to Dr Kalam.

''Caste-based reservation is just a ploy of politicians to divide us. It is only vote bank politics at our expense,'' he said.
He said the delegation asked the President to have a ''relook'' into the 1990 Mandal report and the primary education policy.
Kaul said Dr Kalam gave the delegation a patient hearing and assured them that he will look into their demands.

The student leader claimed that the United Students has the support of the Bharat Uday Mission, representing IIT and JNU students, the Youth for Equality under which all the five medical colleges of Delhi are represented and the Youth of Justice.