NRIs appeal to PM to restore IIT quota

Dubai, Feb 23: An NRI welfare body has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restore DASA (Direct Addmission of Students Abroad) scheme, which allowed Indian students overseas to enter IITs on the basis of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and CBSE performance.

In a letter to Dr Singh, the Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust said direct admission of NRI students to the Indian Institutes of Technology has been discontinued. The students were now required to pass SAT which was a criterion for admission for universities of excellence in the United States and other English speaking countries. They were required to pay 6000 dollars per semester as tuition fee in addition to miscellaneous fees.

The Trust said the DASA scheme was introduced to attract talented Indian students to IITs back home as they would otherwise seek admission in universities abroad. Another reason was that the high fees could help upgrade the IITs.

The overseas Indian students, however, did not have the coaching facilities for IIT admissions as their Indian counterparts, which placed them at a disadvantage. ''It is not as if students lagging in scholastic excellence are given entry through the backdoor as SAT is the criterion applied by US universities which anyway attract most of the IITians for higher studies,'' the letter stated.

Admission for NRI students under DASA continues even now for 18 National Institutes of Technology and five other top engineering colleges. As the DASA quota is still continuing for NITs and other colleges, there is no justification for denying the same for IITs.

UNI