CM urges 25% quota for locals in all Pondicherry University courses

Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy met Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on June 15 and handed over a memorandum seeking a 25% quota in every course at Pondicherry University for residents of the Union Territory.

Rangasamy, accompanied by Assembly Speaker R Selvam, reminded the vice president, who serves as chancellor of the university under the Pondicherry University Act 1985, that “the territorial government, the people of the Union Territory, and the student community here have been requesting the Pondicherry Central University for a long time for reservation of 25 percent of the seats in all courses offered by the institution for the natives of the Union Territory.”

The chief minister noted that the university briefly honored the request in the 1990s. Then–Vice Chancellor A Gnanam, with approval from the Academic Council and Executive Committee, first applied the quota to eight courses, expanding it later to 18.

When new professional and job-oriented programs were introduced, however, the university did not extend the reservation.

“This denial sowed the seeds of discontent in the minds of the youth of the Union Territory of Puducherry,” the memorandum states.

Rangasamy pointed to a Legislative Assembly resolution backing the quota and to a three-member panel that recommended a uniform 25% reservation across all programs, a recommendation accepted by the Academic Council and ratified by the Executive Committee in 2013–2014.

He argued that the university was created “to fulfill the regional aspirations of the people of the Union Territory of Puducherry,” meaning all academic avenues should naturally be open to local students.

Similar reservations already exist at other federally funded institutions in the region: the National Institute of Technology, Karaikal, sets aside 50% of its seats for Union Territories, and JIPMER has reserved 25% for Puducherry students since 1964.

Currently, only 18 of Pondicherry University’s 64 programs offer the 25% quota. “Having recognized the legitimacy in certain courses, the denial of reservation in all the other courses is rather perplexing,” the chief minister wrote, urging Dhankhar to take “a compassionate view” and secure the quota for all existing and future programs.

The vice president is on a three-day visit to Puducherry, with events scheduled at JIPMER on June 16 and at the university on June 17.