Govt arts college denies PG seats to three rank holders

Coimbatore: Three engineering graduates, who applied for admission to a postgraduate course in the Government Arts College here, were turned down by the authorities on Thursday citing that only students who completed a three-year undergraduate course are eligible.

However, claiming that the rule was unfair, the trio has written a letter to the vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University requesting for admission. Enginneering courses in the state are a four-year curriculum, which has been cited at the reason for disqualification.

R Deepak Chandrakanth, 26, from Kattoor, S Deepak, 26, from Pollachi and S Govindaraj, 26 from Gobichettipalayam in Erode district had applied for admission to master of arts course in political science at the Government Arts College in Coimbatore.

The college authorities accepted their applications and subsequently told them to come for the counseling session. However, even after the authorities verified their certificates, they were denied admission.

In order to explain the situation, one of the students, Chandrakanth, sent a letter to the V-C on Thursday evening, claiming that he completed the BE course three years ago but was denied admission to the masters course by the college authorities.

"My friend Deepak was first in the rank list and Govindaraj was second. I was sixth in the list. We were preparing for competitive exams. So, we wanted to study political science for which we had applied. But, we were denied admission," said Chandrakanth.

When contacted, college principal, P Jayalakshmi said as per government college rules, students who had completed a three-year UG course will be admitted for the PG courses. "We cannot violate the rules formulated by the state government. Hence, we denied admission," said Jayalakshmi.

According to sources, Chandrakanth is the district president of Students Federation of India (SFI) and other two students are also SFI members. They have also completed BE and BL courses. The sources further said the students should approach the directorate of collegiate education to sort out the issue.