The Central Government is all set to implement 10% General Category reservation across all the institutions of higher education( both private and government). The reservation will be extended to the economically weaker sections in the general category along with SCs, STs, and OBCs, studying in higher educational institutes, from the new academic session of 2019-20 starting this July.
Speaking to media about this, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “The reservation will be implemented from the 2019-2020 academic session itself. Nearly 25 percent seats will be added to ensure that the reservation does not disturb the existing quota for SC, ST, and other categories. There are around 40,000 colleges and 900 universities across the country and supernumerary quota will be provided in these”.
The Government is most likely to introduce a Bill in the upcoming Budget Session to implement the decision. Even though the Constitution provides for reservation in the private sector, it needs to be enforced through a separate bill. However, it is also speculated that the Government might introduce the quota through an executive order this week itself instead of taking a legislative route to implement the newly announced quota.
The decision comes 12 years after the 93rd Amendment Act of 2006 wherein Constitution was amended to impose the State’s reservation policies on the private unaided colleges in the country. At present reservation is extended to STs and SCs only in government and government-aided educational institutions.
Asked about income criteria for the quota, Javadekar said that it will be the same as for the OBC creamy layer i.e. a person whose family has a gross annual income of Rs. 8 Lakh.
According to the sources, the central institutions will be allowed to make the increase of 25 percent seats at their own pace. Javadekar, when asked about the exact number of seats to be added, said, “The modalities are being worked out and within a week’s time we will have the exact number of seats that will be added. The operation manuals about how to implement the quota will be issued soon. The colleges and universities will also be asked to mention the quota in their prospectus as well and make infrastructural arrangements accordingly”.However, the HRD ministry is silent on the additional financial burden on central institutions on account of the increase in student strength.
The 10% quota bill for Economically Weak in General Category was passed in both Houses of Parliament last week and after receiving the presidential assent, The Constitution (103 Amendment) Act, 2019 came into force on January 14, 2019.