UP approves 10% quota for general category poor in govt jobs, institutes

UP becomes third state after Gujarat and Jharkhand to implement the 10% reservation quota for economically weaker section among upper castes

Uttar Pradesh on Friday became the third state, after Gujarat and Jharkhand, to implement 10 per cent quota for the economically weak among the upper castes in government jobs and educational institutions.

Earlier, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had passed a law to provide 10 per cent reservation to the poor among general category in jobs and educational institutions. However, under the federal structure, the respective states are also required to implement the same.

The decision was taken at the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow this afternoon.

Addressing the media, UP energy minister and government spokesperson, Shrikant Sharma said the state had decided to implement the quota law "in the letter and spirit as passed by the Centre without any tweaking".

"While the decision to implement the 10% quota for the general category has been taken, other related decisions will prospectively be taken as the need arises, including bringing an ordinance," he said.

The Centre is yet to issue the fine print of 10 per cent quota, such as the age limit, if any, apart from whether to treat candidates having an annual family income of Rs 100,000 at par with another having annual family income of Rs 800,000, the upper ceiling, to avail of the quota benefit.

 

According to sources, the Adityanath government would also soon come out with such guidelines and finer details, once these are decided by the Centre.

Recently, Modi had said the constitutional amendment to provide 10% quota to the poor among the general category was the result of the ‘political will’ of his government and that it would be implemented from this academic year. The new quota is proposed to be implemented in 40,000 colleges spanning 900 Indian universities from this academic year, while the number of seats would be hiked by 10% so that it does not affect other students.

BSP president Mayawati had also welcomed the 10% quota for the poor upper castes. However, she also demanded a separate quota for poor Muslims.

In another decision, the cabinet passed the proposal of providing marketing and e-marketing support to entrepreneurs, artisans, weavers and exporters under the flagship One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme, which aims at giving global branding platform to the state’s indigenous and traditional industries.