DOOMDOOMA, July 24 - Over 300 students of Doomdooma Circle are going to be deprived of higher education due to insufficient number of seats at Doomdooma College, the only institution of higher education in the area.
The Circle, it may be mentioned, covers a large area, namely Saikhowa, Dangari, Talap, Borhapjan, Kakopothar, Dirak, Tongona, Phillobari, Baghjan, Dighaltarang and Kordoiguri, besides Doomdooma.
Every year after declaration of HSLC and HSSLC examination results, the college is invariably overcrowded with students aspiring for seats. As per seat capacity, the college authority allots seats to the students based on the percentage of marks obtained in the last examination. Hence, students who secure low percentage of marks are often deprived of seats. A majority of these students belong to the socio-economically backward classes.
Earlier, a section of students could not avail the opportunity of higher education due to financial constraints. In recent times, such students saw a glimmer of hope with the State Government�s free education policy for students whose family�s annual income is Rs 1 lakh or less. But due to insufficient number of seats in the only college of this vast area, their hope of higher education, it seems, is going to be nipped in the bud.
Since the last few years, various civic and student bodies have consistently been appealing to the State Government to set up one more full-fledged college under Doomdooma Circle. As a result, in his last Budget speech, Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma announced that a full-fledged college would be set up at Doomdooma from the next academic session. But this announcement is yet to be materialised on the ground and consequently the same problem has cropped up yet again.
Various student bodies, including SFI, AASU, AMSU, ATTSA and AASAA submitted several petitions to the Government and urged it to either start the college soon or increase the number of seats in Doomdooma College. But the Government paid no attention to this problem.
On the other hand, the authority of Doomdooma College has also been harassed by the deprived students as well as the students� bodies for gaining admission.
The matter has presently taken a serious turn as the Doomdooma branch committee of ATTSA recently blocked NH-37 at Hanhsara here for about two hours in protest against the recurring problem. The students� body threatened to take up more agitational programmes if the deprived students do not gain admission.
The civil society and students� organisations here have therefore urged the Government, especially the new Education Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharyya to amicably settle this burning problem so that no student is deprived from gaining admission.
