Centre Clears Rs 4,300 Cr For EWS Quota Implementation In Educational Institutes

The Centre has allotted Rs 4,315.15 crore for the seamless implementation of 10 per cent quota for the economically weak among the general category across 158 centrally-funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

The amount allotted by the Central government will be used to expand the seats available in over 158 higher education institutions that are funded by the Central government across the country, a news report said.

With the implementation of the EWS quota, 95,783 seats are to be added in the 20-21 admission cycle, in addition to the 1.18 lakh seats that had been added to these institutions in 2019, which include the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), NITs (National Institutes of Technology) and IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University).

In the academic year 2020-21, there will be 4,320 more seats across 23 IITs, and 743 additional seats in the IIMs. The 40 central universities will add close to 27,000 seats. IGNOU, which has already added 70,000 seats in the July cycle of admission, will add another 20,000 seats in December 2019 and 60,000 in 2020.

Money has been released to the institutions for the two-phased EWS quota implementation, which includes scholarships, salaries of teachers and infrastructure creation. Of the sanctioned amount, the allocated budget has been assigned for different activities as follows:

• Infrastructure – Rs 2680.18 crore
• Scholarship – Rs 917.14 crore

According to a senior Ministry of Human Resources Development official, “The institutions have nearly completed implementation of the first phase of the EWS quota. The universities sent their proposals to the ministry. After studying the proposals, the government sanctioned the additional fund to facilitate the implementation of the EWS reservation.”