Central Institutions To Create 25 Per Cent Supernumerary Seats To Accommodate 10 Per Cent EWS Quota

All central higher education institutions will be required to increase their annual intake for the coming academic session by 25 per cent over the current number of seats to pave the way for implementing the government’s 10 per cent quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) without disturbing the existing caste-based quotas given to SCs, STs and OBCs, reports The Indian Express.

The Union HRD Ministry issued an executive order on Thursday (17 January) commanding central universities and colleges be ready with a final implementation plan for the 10 per cent quota by 31 March 2019 so that they could implement it beginning from the new academic session which starts in July.

The increase in intake will have to be made in every single branch or faculty, in a manner that existing caste-based quotas, as well as the number of present seats for general category students, are not cut.

The creation of these supernumerary seats would mean an additional intake of 2.32 lakh students across all central institutions in the country, considering that their current number of seats each year is 9.28 lakh each year.

The EWS category reservation is applicable for those individuals currently not covered under any quota who have an annual family income of less than Rs 8 lakh, and who meet other criteria such as not living in a residential flat of 1,000 square feet or more and not having agricultural land of five acres and above.