The Narendra Modi government on Monday gave its approval to 10% reservation for people belonging to economically weaker sections of upper castes in jobs and education. The move, seen as an attempt to woo voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, will benefit economically weaker upper caste sections in government jobs and education.
However, the question arises as to what constitutes as economically backward upper castes. For those wishing to take advantage of the new reservation, their annual income must be below Rs 8 lakhs, they mustn’t own more than 5 hectare of agricultural land, their residential area must be below 1000 sq ft and their residential plot should not exceed 109 yards in any notified municipalities. In the event that their residential are in non notified municipality areas, the plot size must be below 209 yards.
Criteria for economically backward section:
1) Annual income below 8 lakhs
2) Agricultural land below 5 hectare
3) Residential below 1000 sq ft
4) Residential plot below 109 yards in notified municipality.
5) Residential plot below 209 yards in non notified municipality area— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) January 7, 2019
The government is likely to move the Constitutional Amendment Bill on Tuesday for the reservation. It may even extend the Winter Session to allow the passage of the Bill by two days.
The development comes at a time when PM Modi is facing a severe dip in his popularity after his party lost three key states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in the last month’s assembly polls.
Many pollsters have predicted a rout for the BJP in the coming parliamentary polls. According to the India TV-CNX poll survey, BJP may win 40 seats, BSP 15, SP 20, Congress 2 in Uttar Pradesh if elections were conducted today. This projection was seemingly made based on the assertion that these non-BJP parties will contest separately. Psephologist Yashwant Deshmukh said that the projection for the BJP in UP was worrying and the saffron party may struggle to reach even the double digit if the BSP and the SP fought the Lok Sabha polls together.