Thousands of students from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the State have been losing out on the benefits of the 10% reservation in education and employment over the last four years, since the State government is yet to frame rules and implement the EWS quota.
With the CET results being announced on Saturday, and NEET results expected shortly, the State government not notifying rules yet means that this year too, the quota will not be implemented. The EWS quota was introduced by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government and opposed by the political opposition.
Number of seats
There are 64,484 engineering seats in the State, of which nearly 6,400 would have been available for students in EWS category students if the quota is implemented. The State has 63 medical colleges - 10,145 undergraduate seats and 4,000 post graduate seats, of which 1,014 UG seats and 400 PG seats would have been available for EWS category.
The State Cabinet resolved to implement EWS quota in education and employment in July 2021. A year later, with no implementation of the Cabinet decision, this academic year too, students are unlikely to get its benefits.
The Union government, on January 31, 2019, issued an order to provide 10% EWS quota for communities not covered under the reservation scheme of SCs, STs and OBCs with a gross family income of ₹8 lakh per annum. Following this, the State Government, then led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, on May 14, 2019, issued an order to implement EWS quota for five communities - Brahmin, Aryavyshya, Jain, Nayar and Mudaliars - along with 139 OBC communities in the State list. This was amended by the B.S. Yediyurappa-led BJP government on July 23, 2021, excluding the OBC communities from availing EWS quota benefits.
No directions to KEA
The State government is yet to give any directions to Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), which is all set to kickstart counselling for admission to professional courses, to earmark seats for EWS quota this academic year. S. Ramya, Executive Director, KEA, said the authority had not received any directions from the State government on EWS quota and the CET counselling for 2022-23 doesn’t include the same.
The State government has not included the EWS quota in the seat matrix submitted to National Testing Agency (NTA) that holds the NEET and allots seats for medical seats either. B. L. Sujatha Rathod, Director, Directorate of Medical Education, also said since there was no direction from the State government on EWS quota, they had not included it in the seat matrix proposed to the NTA for 2022-23.
