BHUBANESWAR: Giving concrete shape to the major policy resolutions adopted at the BJD State Executive and State Council meetings recently, the Cabinet on Monday gave its nod to reservation of seats for government school students in engineering and medical colleges along with mandatory filing of property statements by all people’s representatives.
To correct the imbalance in access to coaching classes in rural areas after introduction of centralised examinations like NEET and JEE, the Cabinet approved a proposal to provide reservation to eligible government school and college students of Odisha in institutions operating in State medical and engineering colleges. The reservation will be implemented from next academic year onwards.
The Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through video conference decided to constitute a high power committee headed by a retired judge of the Orissa High Court to finalize the modalities of reservation. The Committee to be constituted with eminent persons including educationists as members, will be mandated to submit the report within three months. Announcing the decision, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari said that the number of students from Odisha getting admission in medical and engineering colleges has been coming down over the years due to lack of access to coaching classes in rural areas. The Cabinet resolution in this regard said the centralised competitive examinations require special skill sets which are imparted mainly through the coaching centres and online coaching classes.
“With such centres being limited to mostly urban pockets and the high economic cost of access to such facilities, thousands of meritorious students from the government school system are at a disadvantage and therefore, fare lower than their potential in the entrance examination,” the Cabinet observed and added, “this is unfair competition for the vast majority of children in Odisha.”
In yet another step to strengthen Naveen Patnaik’s campaign against corruption, the Cabinet approved a proposal to make it mandatory for people’s representatives and government employees to submit property statements every year. The property details will be made available in public domain. Submission of property statement will now be made mandatory for all the public representatives starting from the sarpanchs to the Chief Minister.
Similarly, it has also been made mandatory for all the government servants starting from those at the entry level to the Chief Secretary to submit their property lists, which will then be put in the public domain. A copy of the property statement of public representatives and the government servants will be sent to the Lokayukta every year.