Bhubaneswar, April 6 (IANS). After the Cabinet approved the revised reservation policy for higher education in Odisha, the state unit of Congress has welcomed the decision. However, Odisha Congress President Bhakta Charan Das has alleged that the OBC class, comprising 54 percent of the population, is not getting justice.
Speaking to news agency IANS, Odisha Congress Committee (PCC) President Bhakta Charan Das said, “With regard to higher education and the new education policy, it has been announced that now SC and ST category students will get reservation in medical and engineering studies, which was not applicable earlier. This is a positive step. However, there is still a matter of concern that people of the OBC community, who constitute 54 percent of the total population in the state, are not getting justice.”
He said, “This government is ignoring the people of the OBC category. The people of the OBC category have been demanding proportional reservation in technical and higher education for a long time based on the proportion of their population.”
It is noteworthy that in a historic decision, the Odisha government on Saturday increased the reservation limit for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students. Besides, a separate quota was also implemented for ‘Socially and Economically Backward Classes’ (SEBC) in the field of medical and technical education.
This decision was taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in Bhubaneswar. It said that while the quota for ST students has been increased from 12 percent to 22.50 percent, for SC it has been increased from 8 percent to 16.25 percent. The state government has introduced a quota of 11.25 percent.
Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das also said that similar provisions have already been implemented in Bihar and other states like Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, proving that it is possible to go beyond this limit.
–IANS
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