Erode Apr 20:
A tribal student who had been waiting for 3 years to study in an Agricultural college has joined a private college in Erode district with the help of a new GO issued by the
CM MK Stalin.
Chandran, son of a tribal Udumuttu, belongs to the village of Sundapodu in the Bargur Hills, Erode District. He studied in child labour school and then pursued Plus 2 exam in 2018, having Agriculture activity as vocational subject, and scored 444 marks. Subsequently, he applied to the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Tamil Nadu Veterinary University. But, he didn't get a seat. The main reason was that 95 per cent of the seats were given to the Plus 2 students having science subject while only 5 per cent reserved for the agriculture vocational group.
So, he approached the court seeking to recommend to the government to give the seats on 50:50 basis in the varsities for students having science and agriculture subjects respectively. He also filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission. He also met MK Stalin, the then Leader of the Opposition, and petitioned him. MK Stalin had promised that legal action would be taken on the issue once the DMK came to power.
In this situation, Chandran has applied for a seat this year, and due to the new government order, the Agricultural University has allocated a seat in the self-funded college in the undergraduate agriculture course. So, he joined a private agricultural college in Appakkudal, Erode district on Monday. Commenting on this, Chandran said:
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has 5% reservation for Plus 2 Vocational students. However, 5 per cent reservation is not adhered to in the 28 self-funded private colleges under the University. The Government of Tamil Nadu has issued an order this year to make it compulsory to allot 5 per cent seats in private colleges for the benefit of many students like me. This will provide an additional 100 seats for those studying in the vocational section.
Also, the Tamil medium section has been started in the Agricultural University from this year. I would like to thank the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for realizing my dream to study agricultural education after waiting for 3 years.