Madhya Pradesh: President Ram Nath Kovind orders probe into women quota plaints

Indore: Office of President Ram Nath Kovind has directed Madhya Pradesh chief secretary to investigate into complaints over women quota in government jobs in the state and take necessary action.
Under secretary (petition) at President Secretariat, Ashok Kumar has written a letter to CS Iqbal Singh Bains following the complaints received by the President office from job aspiring women who are up in arms against the horizontal quota to female candidates in government jobs.
Take note: 30 per cent quota is fixed for women candidates in government jobs filled by Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC).
However, the manner in which this quota is implemented restricts their appointment nearly to 30 per cent only. So, it has done more harm than benefit women.
See the example of Ratlam-based Sunita Jain, who got 1249 marks in state service exam yet she lost the seat to Ashish Mishra who secured 1240 marks due to women quota.
“Unlike SC/ST and OBC quotas, woman quota is implemented even in merit list. In other words, candidates making it to the merit list are not considered under quota for SC/ST/OBC. That means they are granted appointments against unreserved seats. So other candidates get benefit of SC/ST/OBC quota. But woman quota is applied even on the women candidates in merit list. This changes cut-offs of women and male candidates. Males gets job even when they have lesser marks than women candidates,” she explained.
About 12 years ago, when the issue first cropped up, the MPPSC had sought guidance from general administration department which directed to implemented woman quota even in merit list.
“This woman quota deprives women candidates of their fundamental right of equal opportunity,” Jain said.

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