IIT seats going empty!
By Kim
 
In a shocking event, 432 seats in six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are still vacant. The number of seats, which is the equivalent of three and a half IITs, is being allowed to go waste because the OBC, SC and ST quotas could not be filled up (as enough applicants could not get the generously-relaxed pass marks set for these categories).
 
On one hand, six new IITs were built this year, each with 120 seats, that's a total of 720 seats. Yet 432 seats in the reserved category are lying vacant even as general category meritorious students have had to return empty handed.
 
The prospect of empty chairs in the classroom has disheartened faculty members.
 
"To let over 430 seats in IITs go vacant is a criminal waste of infrastructure. We are not against reservations but if quotas cannot be filled because there aren't enough suitable candidates, the cut-off for general category should be relaxed so that all seats are used up," said a senior professor of IIT Delhi, on conditions of anonymity.
 
"Every IIT seat has the potential to produce a success story," the professor said. "To allow even one seat to go vacant is like crushing a million dreams and aspirations."
 
Even in the past, the IITs have faced the brunt of political interventions. When the first batch of IIT-Delhi students graduated, 47 of the 53 reserved category students failed. Little has changed. Only two months ago, IIT-Delhi was pulled up by the Minorities Commission for asking 20 reserved students to leave because of "very poor performance".
 
According to a government report nearly 50 per cent of the reserved seats remain vacant. And of those who make it, 25 per cent drop out.