NEW DELHI: The Centre on Sunday informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to accept the recommendation of a three-member panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of Rs 8 lakh or less. The affidavit filed was related to admissions for NEET-PG.
The government said that the panel recommendation viewed family income as a "feasible criterion" and a threshold of Rs 8 lakh of annual family income seemed reasonable for determining EWS.
"I respectfully submit that the central government has decided to accept the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively," Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, R Subrahmanyam, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre, told the top court.
The Centre informed that the panel has recommended that "only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation".
The three-member committee constituted on November 30 last year by the government comprised of Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR, and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to Centre. The government had assured the Apex court to review the criteria for determining EWS.
The committee submitted its report to the Centre on December 31 last year. The delay in the NEET-PG 2021 counseling had led to wide scale protest by a large number of resident doctors under the banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country.