Chandigarh, May 19 -- One of North India's oldest fine arts institutions has been sidestepping a reservation mandate for over two decades. Government College of Art (GCA), Sector 10, has allegedly never implemented the UT pool quota for admissions to its master of fine arts (MFA) programme, despite the framework being a binding policy for all institutions under the UT. The UT pool mandates that 60% of seats in any UT institution must be filled by students who completed their qualifying examination from a school or college recognised by and situated in the Chandigarh administration-essentially, giving local students priority access to higher education in their own city. The remaining 40% are open to candidates from anywhere in the country under the all-India pool. The college's own website acknowledges this policy and applies it to its undergraduate BFA (bachelor of fine arts) programme. But its 2025-26 MFA prospectus covering four disciplines of applied art, graphics, painting, and sculpture, each with a sanctioned intake of 10 seats, carries no such provision. Students allege the quota has never been implemented for the MFA since the programme's inception. The consequences extend beyond local access. In a recent development, UT administration has mandated 27% OBC reservation in admissions across all higher educational, technical, and medical institutions under UT-applicable specifically within the "UT pool" framework. By not implementing the UT pool for MFA admissions, the college will also deny OBC candidates their mandated quota. The omission is harder to explain given how consistently the policy is applied elsewhere. At Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Chandigarh, 50% of MD/MS seats are reserved under the UT pool. Across UT colleges, 85% of seats in MA, MSc and MCom courses are reserved for students from Chandigarh institutions. Punjab government, similarly, provides 85% reservation in MTech courses for students who completed their BTech from colleges within the state. Final year BFA students of GCA, have formally demanded in a letter to the technical education department UT that at least 60% MFA seats be reserved under the UT pool for students who completed their BFA from Chandigarh institutions, bringing the postgraduate programme in line with both the undergraduate programme and the broader UT policy framework. Director technical education Palika Arora said the matter had not been known to the department. She added that the principal would be asked to furnish the requisite documents and approvals, or the lack thereof, explaining why the UT pool has not been implemented for the MFA programme. GCA principal Alka Jain remained unavailable forcomment despite multiple attempts to reach her....