State to give 10 per cent quota to EWS

Mumbai: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the state government has decided to grant 10 per cent reservation in jobs and education to those who are economically weak in the state. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted a graphic that said families, whose collective annual income is less than Rs 8 lakh — through sources such as farming, salaries, business-industry — would be treated as economically backward in this case.

“#Maharashtra Cabinet 10 per cent reservation for the economically poor in Maharashtra,” Mr Fadnavis said on Twitter. The current reservation level in the state is 68 per cent and this figure will rise to 78 per cent after the decision to grant EWS quota.

The state government’s decision is in line with the Centre’s recent move of granting 10 per cent quota to the financially weak from general category, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said. He said that the benefit would be effective for job recruitments or adm-issions in educational institutes from February 1, 2019 onwards.

According to the graphic posted by Mr Fadnavis on the micro-blogging site Twitter, 10 per cent seats or posts would be available for the economically poor in recruitment for government services and admissions in educational institutes. It exp-lains that the aforesaid per cent of posts would be reserved in government establishments, semi-government establishments, corporations or urban governing agencies, rural local governing agencies and authorities.

However, the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) claimed that the quota move was not going to benefit people. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the criteria for granting benefits under the government’s decision meant 90 per cent of the general category beneficiaries ‘would get crowded in the 10 per cent quota slot’.