Central Institutes Require Rs.5,600 Crore for 10% EWS Reservation Implementation

IITs, IIMs and other central universities such as NITs and IIITs will add roughly 1.2 lakh seats for the new academic session beginning in July 2019 and are also considering to add another 95,000 seats next year to implement the 10% quota for the EWS category.

On January 7, the Union Cabinet approved the 10% quota for the EWS, and the HRD Ministry notified all the central universities to implement it on January 17. All these centrally-funded educational institutes have been asked to increase their intake over a period of two years in such a manner that the existing number of seats for ST, SC, OBC, and general category students did not face any cuts.

Also Read:Maharashtra: 10% Quota for EWS in Education and Jobs

Additional seats in government institutes as per 10% EWS quota will cost the government approximately Rs. 5,600 crore as per the implementation plan that’s been shared by all the central institutes by January 31. Out of this, Rs. 3,839 crore has been utilized for new infrastructure, Rs. 723 crore for teachers' salaries to hire more teachers and the remaining amount is for fellowships for the added intake.

The largest chunk of the Rs. 5600 crore has been demanded by the central universities (Rs. 2,682 crores) and this is followed by the IITs (Rs. 1,094 crores) and the NITs (Rs. 1,001 crores). The financials for implementing the EWS reservation is more than the initial estimate of Rs. 4,200 crore by the HRD Ministry.

As per the official proposal by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment approved by the Union Cabinet on January 7, the cost of implementing the 10% quota will have to borne by the central institutes out of the additional revenue generated by them on increased seats.

The original proposal which was approved by the government did not take into account any other expenditure on capacity expansion of central educational institutes for 10% EWS quota. As per the interim budget 2019, roughly Rs. 4600 crore has been kept aside for the 10% reservation for poor in the general category and for HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency) equity.

Also Read: IIT D to Increase Seats for EWS

IITs are planning to increase their intake by 6,708 seats out of which 2,388 seats will be added this year, and remaining will be added next year. In a similar manner, the IIMs will add 620 seats in July, and 743 in 2020, and the central universities will increase the total intake by 47,223 over a period of two years.