25% more seats in edu institutes for EWS not in 1 year

New Delhi: The proposal of Union Human Resource Minister Prakash Javadekar to increase 25 per cent seats in all educational institutions for implementing the 10 per cent reservation quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) of general category may face an infrastructure roadblock as the proposed seats cannot be increased in a one go as it was announced.

"The proposal to increase 25 per cent seats would be completed in phased manner in the next three years. In the first year only 10 per cent seats would be increased in higher educational institutions, while the remaining 15 per cent seats would be increased in the next two years," said a senior official in the HRD ministry.

"The issue is not about increasing seats only as we have to appoint teachers as well. Every institution would also require new classrooms, chairs, etc to accommodate new students. So under the given situation, it wouldn't be possible for any institute to increase 25 per cent in one go and start admitting extra students," the official said.

"In the first phase, reservation would be implemented by increasing 10 per cent seats in the upcoming academic session and implementation of 10 per cent EWS quota would be completed in the next two years when the proposed 25 per cent seats would be increased," the official said, adding that the government would bear the financial implications on the central higher education institutions when the reservation would be implemented.

The HRD Ministry has also sought the details of expected expenditure from IITs, NITs, all central universities in this regard. All the institutions have been asked to submit their response to the ministry and UGC by the end of this month.

In the case of institutions under the state governments, it would be the responsibility of states to provide financial assistance to institutions for 10 per cent EWS quota implementation.