UG admission meet: Principals to apprise Bratya Basu of crisis over centralised portal
Telegraph | 23 May 2025
Principals of government and aided colleges will apprise education minister Bratya Basu on Sunday about the crisis they are facing because of the delay in starting the state-run centralised undergraduate admission portal.
Basu is scheduled to attend the annual conference of the All Bengal Principals’ Council, a platform of college heads, on May 25.
Manas Kabi, principal of Asutosh College, said they have yet to start receiving online applications despite the publication of the Plus-II board results in early May.
“The state government is yet to open the centralised portal as it is awaiting legal opinion on the issue of OBC reservation,” he said.
Kabi, who is the secretary of the principals’ council’s Calcutta University chapter, said they are worried about the delayed start in admission because the private and autonomous colleges and universities have started their admission from the first week of May.
“The delay in the admission means these institutions that are outside the ambit of the state-run panel will enrol the bright and promising students. We will appraise the minister who has been invited to the annual conference about the extent of the crisis,” said Kabi.
Sharmila Mitra, principal of Behala College, said last year, thousands of the undergraduate seats in government-aided colleges had remained vacant owing to the delay in opening the portal.
The college secured A++ grade (the highest grade) in the NAAC’s accreditation in 2023.
“This year we are witnessing the same delay in starting the admission process. We will urge the minister so that he intervenes in opening the portal immediately,” said Mitra.
Calcutta High Court on May 21, 2024, had quashed the Bengal government’s order that had classified 77 communities as OBCs (other backward classes) and secured reservation for them in education and jobs.
The Bengal government, which challenged the order in March, informed the Supreme Court that the state had decided to take a fresh exercise to classify potential OBC beneficiaries.
Following the intimation given by senior advocate Kapil Sibal on behalf of the state government, the division bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih posted the government’s earlier special leave petition (SLP), challenging the high court judgement for disposal in July.
The state government recently sought the opinion of the Bengal’s advocate general on the OBC reservation issue at the undergraduate level, given the legal challenges.
“The opinion has yet to come,” said an official of the higher education department on Thursday.
Calls and texts to education minister Bratya Basu from this newspaper did not yield any response.
The Telegraph last week reported about the principals expressing their concerns about not being able to start the undergraduate admission process in absence of the nod from the state government on opening the portal.
Many wondered why the state government did not start the process of seeking legal opinion in advance when the issue of the OBC reservation has been pending before the apex court for some time.
“This would have enabled us to start the admission process immediately after the publication of the Plus-II results,” said Shiuli Sarkar, principal of Lady Brabourne College.