New Delhi: Recommendation by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, its MPs and other influential quarters for admissions in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) may soon be history now with the HRD minister Kapil Sibal announcing to ward off the discretionary quota system.

The decision, incidentally comes after Sibal soon after taking over as HRD minister was flooded with admission requests last year, only to realize that 1000 seats out of 1200 were already exhausted by his predecessor Arjun Singh under the discretionary quota.

Ultimately, the minister had to deny admission requests even from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Sibal being the presiding chairman over the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) is all set to replace the recommendation criteria with a new set of rules that are being formulated currently in order to ensure equity and deserving candidates are entitled the admission.

"Many admission requests were turned down by the minister saying that the quota system will now be scrapped and the KV admission process would now be overhauled. Even MPs coming up with the requests are being refused," said an official source in the ministry.

With the minister scrapping the recommendation there is a mixed reaction from the MPs as some of them admit that this move will ease the pressure on them as they had a tough time in choosing only two out of hundreds of them, leading to antagonizing the rest while others felt that the government should work towards setting up of more KVs.

An MP whose admission request had been turned down said that, "Several admission requests from various government employees had to be turned down despite of them being deserving cases. The fact is that there is a shortage of KVs to meet the growing demand. The gap should be addressed by the government towards filling it."

As many as 10 lakh students were admitted into 981 KVs across the country in 2009-10.

These schools, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), serve the wards of the employees of the central government.