The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh has issued orders, making certain changes in the implementation of 10 per cent reservations for economically weaker sections (EWS) in educational institutions and employment, as per the law enacted by the Central government in 2019.
In the process, the state government has done away with the five per cent quota for economically weak Kapus provided by the Telugu Desam Party government led by N Chandrababu Naidu in March 2019, just before the state assembly elections, obviously to woo Kapu votes.
In 2017, the TDP government passed a bill in the state assembly bringing Kapus under the Backward Classes category, treating them as BC-F.
The bill was sent to the Centre for the Presidential assent. Even as the bill was under the examination, the Centre brought in the law providing 10 per cent quota for EWS.
Taking advantage of this, Naidu immediately implemented it, providing five per cent quota for Kapus and the remaining five per cent for non-Kapus under EWS quota.
“Both the bill and the five per cent quota for Kapus, treating them as Open Category, are contradictory to each other,” the order issued by the Jagan government said.
Since the Supreme Court, in an appeal against the reservation of Maratha Community has clearly reiterated that the overall cap in reservation shall not exceed 50% as originally ordered in Indra Sawhney judgment, the separate quota for Kapus cannot be implemented.
“Kapus are neither categorized as BCs nor able to avail the reservations under EWS category. Similarly, because of litigations, members from other EWS communities are also not able to avail the reservations,” the order said.
After taking into consideration various judgements and the petitions pending before the courts, besides several representations from public regarding the implementation of 10% EWS reservation in employment and admission in educational institutions, the Jagan government said it was making certain modifications in the eligibility conditions to implement the fresh quota.
As per the new order, the government has decided to adopt only the family income criteria of annual income of Rs 8 lakh and do away with reservations on the caste basis for EWS quota.
The Income shall also include income from all sources i.e. salary, agriculture, business, profession, etc. for the financial year prior to the year of application.