Gujarat approves 10% quota with tweaked rules, Gujaratis to gain: Report

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel

Gujarat on January 23 approved rules for implementing the 10 percent quota in government jobs and higher education for economically weaker sections (EWS) within the general category.

However, it discarded criterion of house or land-ownership and instead includes a 1978 cut-off date for settlers in Gujarat.

The cut-off date criterion set by the state government is reportedly to protect 'interests of Gujaratis'. The rule implies that only those belonging to other states, who had settled in Gujarat before 1978, will be eligible to avail benefit of the quota. This will effectively disqualify lakhs of non-Gujaratis, according to a report by The Times of India.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said people from other states, who settled in Gujarat after the 1978 cut-off date, can still apply for central government jobs under the quota.

The Vijay Rupani-government retained the Rs 8 lakh per annum family income as the main criterion. “Ownership of land will not affect eligibility...Our aim is to help young people get government jobs and higher education,” Patel was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The quota bill was passed by Parliament and given Presidential assent earlier this month, making it a law. However, the reservation law has been challenged in the Supreme Court (SC).

A plea was filed by businessman Tehseen Poonawalla on January 22 and is likely to come up for hearing during the week.

It sought quashing of the bill saying that backwardness for the purpose of reservation cannot be defined by 'economic status alone'.

The move is seen as the BJP's step to consolidate upper caste votes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in April-May. Political observers suggest that these sections of upper castes had drifted from the party because of its aggressive push to win over backward classes and Dalits. And this is the party's attempt to bring them back before the Lok Sabha polls.

The saffron party faced the wrath of the upper castes in the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan elections, over the amendment brought by the Central government to nullify the Supreme Court judgement in the SC-ST Act last year.