NEW DELHI: The government has constituted a committee to revisit the criteria for determining the economically weaker sections (EWS) to provide them reservation. The government had informed the Supreme Court last week that it has taken a decision to revisit the criteria.
The committee members are former finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, member secretary of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) V K Malhotra and principal economic advisor to the government Sanjay Sanyal. The committee has been asked to complete its work within three weeks.
In an official memorandum issued on Tuesday, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry said the government constituted the committee in accordance with the commitment given to the Supreme Court to revisit the criteria for determining the economically weaker sections (EWS) in terms of the provisions of the explanation to Article 15 of the Constitution.
The committee will revisit the criterion in determining the EWS category keeping in view the observations of the Supreme Court.
It will also examine various approaches so far followed in the country for identifying EWS and recommend criteria that may be adopted for identifying EWS category in the future.
The Centre’s earlier decision to set an annual income of `8 lakh to determine EWS was criticised by the Supreme Court. The panel was formed after that.