NEW DELHI: In the second Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Modi government has approved a Bill to address key demands of the Dalit and backward class activists to accept university or college as a unit for implementation of reservation facilities, which would help fill up 7,000 existing vacancies for teachers.
“We have often said that the existing reservation system in educational institutions, where a department has been the unit for implementation of the quota benefits, had been disadvantageous to candidates from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward castes.
Now, The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill, 2019, approved by the Cabinet, will ensure that university or college would be considered as one unit based on 200-point roster. The Bill will also ensure the rollout of 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections from the general category of candidates,” I&B minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters while briefing on Cabinet decisions.
The government had brought an Ordinance to give effect to the proposals ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The Ordinance, however, lapsed since it was not taken up in the Rajya Sabha.
Dalit agitation in parts of the country, which had turned violent in some states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, was apparently fuelled by apprehensions among SC activists that they were being deprived of reservation benefits in vacancies in educational institutions since seats in a department were filled by general category candidates.
“As many as 7,000 posts in educational institutions could soon be filled up with the proper implementation of reservation benefits for SCs, STs, OBCs and EWS among general category,” said Javadekar. The Bill will be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament, he said.