Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday expressed strong reservations against Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal's move to raise the bar for IIT entrance examination from the existing 60 percent to 80 percent. Sibal, however, on Tuesday afternoon appeared to backtrack from his stand.

Terming the proposal to raise the cut off for appearing in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as "pro-elitist" and "anti-student", Mayawati said that she would oppose it tooth and nail.

In a letter shot off to Sibal, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister demanded "immediate withdrawal of the proposal" while urging him "not to initiate any education-related policy change without taking into account its impact on the student community".

"Evidently, the move is aimed at depriving a large chunk of society from getting the opportunity to seek entry into the country's premier technical institution," Mayawati said in a statement issued here on Tuesday evening.

Dismissing Sibal's claim that the move was aimed at bringing down the number of applicants to the entrance examination, Mayawati said: "It would have made more sense if suitable amendments were carried out in the entrance examination to enable applicants to appear without having to attend expensive coaching institutes."

She wondered "why the system was designed to encourage coaching institutes which only the rich and the affluent could afford" while adding "it was high time the central government paid some attention to the need for reforms in the entrance examination".

In her letter to Sibal, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said "the issue is not that the 80 percent aggregate requisite for the entrance examination would reduce the rush for the examination, but the most pertinent question is to know who is the government hoping to benefit through the move?"

She went on to add: "To me it appears that this restrictive policy is intended to benefit a particular class of people and deprive a whole lot of ordinary people."

Sibal, however, told reporters in New Delhi: "The eligibility criteria to appear in the joint entrance exam (IIT-JEE) is decided by the IITs themselves. The government has no role to play and any report which suggests that there is a proposal to allow only those who obtain above 80 percent marks in their Class 12 examination to sit for the JEE is baseless." IANS