There never was convened a second round of admissions at any of the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) before. But such a thing is now going to happen to fill empty seats at all 13 IITs, plus at the IT-BHU and Indian School of Mines-Dhanbad. A second list at all these institutes will be released soon.  

In a meeting held with the IIT heads recently in New Delhi, the HRD Ministry instructed that all empty seats at the institutes be filled. What is appalling is that that the HRD Ministry is showing no inclination towards de-reserving vacant seats at the IITs for the SC, ST and OBC candidates.

The Ministry on the contrary is of the opinion that the IITs dilute merit by slashing the cut-off for admitting more reserved category students. Following the HRD Ministry’s command, Surendra Prasad, the Director of IIT Delhi, said that they would be taking in additional students. Contrarily MS Ananth, the director of IIT-Madras, remarked that it is really ‘criminal’ to take in students with cutoffs that are further relaxed.