Centre plans bill in budget session to extend reservation to higher education private institutions

New Delhi, Jan 17: Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar has announced that reservation for SCs, STs, OBCs and economically weaker sections in the general category in higher education will be extended to all private institutions from the new academic year beginning in July.

The Centre is likely to introduce a Bill the parliament's budget session to implement the decision.

The institutions run by the Centre will have to increase their student strength by almost 25 per cent in order to accommodate the EWS reservation without affecting the current number of SC, ST, OBC and general category seats.

However, the government may not take the legislative route to implement the newly announced 10% cent quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of the general category in central educational institutions.

"Under the 124th Constitutional amendment, the HRD Ministry has decided that from this year itself the quota for EWS category will be applicable. While implementing this, we will ensure that reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs does not get affected. Hence, there will be more seats," Javadekar told reporters Tuesday.

Asked about the income criteria for the EWS quota, Javadekar said it will be the same as for the OBC creamy layer. In other words, a person whose family has a gross annual income below Rs 8 lakh will be identified as a beneficiary under the new quota. The family includes "the person who seeks the benefit of reservation, his/ her parents, siblings below the age of 18 years, his/ her spouse, and children below the age of 18 years".