As ‘general category’ protests reservation policy, Maharashtra mulls increasing seats

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 23

The Maharashtra Government has set up a committee that will review if seats should be increased in educational institutions in the state in the light of state’s reservation policy — a development that comes as students from the ‘General Category’ plan to hold protests.

The state government under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has set up a 7-member committee that the Additional Chief Secretary (Services) will head to make recommendations.

“The committee will seek to ensure that the number of seats available to students under the general category is not reduced after the implementation of quotas for the Marathas and the Economically Weaker Sections,” a state government official said on Friday.

The state government will have to ensure adequate infrastructure at educational institutions before it adds it more seas, the official said.

The committee has been given three months to submit its report, but the Bharatiya Janata Party—the ruling party in the state—wants a workable formula ready before code of conduct rules come into effect in the state by the end of September, sources said.  

The current assembly’s term ends in October. Assembly elections are soon due in the state.  

Fadnavis’s government had introduced 12 per cent quota for the Marathas under the Social and Economically Backward Castes (SEBC) and 10 per cent reservations for the Economically Weaker Sections earlier this year—taking the reservation in the state’s educational institutions and jobs up from 52 per cent that existed until then.

Students who fall under the General Category have taken the state government’s reservation policy to court saying it would adversely affect their careers. Two student organisations—Save Merit & Save Nation and Youth for Equality—have announced demonstrations in different parts of the state, including Mumbai.