Mumbai: In keeping with the Centre’s decision to allow 10 per cent reservation for the economically-weaker sections from the general category in government jobs and in education, the Maharashtra cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, on Monday decided to implement it in the state.
Accordingly, people in this category will get 10 per cent quota in government jobs and in the state-run corporations, semi-government institutions, local urban civic and the rural civic bodies. They will also get the benefit in educational institutions.
A General Administrative Department (GAD) official clarified the 10 per cent reservation will be separate from the existing quota of 52 per cent for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs), the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the Special Backward Class (SBCs) and the Nomadic Tribes (NTs).
He added the quota for economically-backward classes would not coincide in the 16 per cent quota for the socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC), awarded to the Maratha community last year. Fadnavis tweeted a graphic, which explained families, whose collective annual income is less than Rs8 lakh, through sources such as farming, salary, business and industry, would be treated as economically-backward in the case.
The state government’s decision is in line with the Centre’s recent move to grant 10 per cent quota to the EWS from the general category, said the state finance minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar. “The cabinet has decided to give 10 per cent quota to those who are financially weak, from any caste or religion, in education and jobs,” Mungantiwar told reporters. He said the benefit was available in recruitment or admissions to educational institutions from February 1, 2019 onwards.
