Controversial G.O. on sports quota to go

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 9. The controversial G.O. on the sports quota in professional colleges in the State is being withdrawn following the intervention of the Minister for Sports, Mr. T. Sitaram, ``to protect the interests of the sportspersons of the State.''

The G.O. No. 725, issued recently, limits the scope of the sports quota in the engineering and medical seats to the gold and silver medalists of the national school games eliminating bronze medalists from reckoning.

Hitherto sportspersons from Andhra Pradesh, who have secured the first three places in the national school games, have enjoyed a quota of 0.5 per cent in engineering seats and 0.25 per cent in medical seats.

Officials of the Technical Education Department have claimed that the G.O. was issued based on the recommendations of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) to broadbase the reserved quota.

Accordingly, students drawn from the CBSE and ICSE, who have not been considered for the sports quota so far, were included in the new G.O. These students securing the top two positions of the national games conducted by their respective educational societies will, thus, be entitled to the reserved quota.

There was no dispute over extending the benefit to the CBSE and ICSE students. But what is intriguing is the pruning of the quota to only the first two placements in the national games thereby denying the facility hitherto enjoyed by the bronze medalists. While the Technical Education Department officials blamed the SAAP for the controversial G.O., sources in SAAP denied having recommended that the quota be limited to gold and silver medalists only.

The Sports Minister strongly protested against the G.O. issued by the Education Department and took up the matter with the Minister for Technical Education, Mr. A. Rajendra Prasad. The two Ministers agreed that the provision relating to the first three places in the National Games be restored promptly as counselling for the engineering and medical seats was in an advanced stage.

``A new G.O. restoring the quota to the bronze medalists will be issued in a day or two. It has been decided to correct the error that has somehow crept in,'' Mr. Sitaram explained to The Hindu on Tuesday.

Roughly 180 seats of the general quota (free seats) are garnered by the students who excel themselves in the school games at the national level.

The SAAP reviewed the existing provisions of the sports quota and submitted a report to the Government about six months ago suggesting a few changes to extend the benefit to other categories of sportsmen. The quota was hitherto limited to only participants of the junior level National Games but the SAAP recommended that the sub-junior level participants be also brought under its purview.

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