Will retain Rs 8L income criteria for EWS, says Centre
EWS may exclude a person whose family has 5 acres of agricultural land and above
NEW DELHI: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it has decided to accept the recommendation of a three-member panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) of Rs 8 lakh or less.
In its affidavit filed in a matter related to admissions for NEET-PG, the Centre said the panel has recommended that "only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation".
"I respectfully submit that the Central government has decided to accept the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively," R Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre told the top court.
The government had constituted the member committee, comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to Centre, on November 30, last year.
The committee in its report submitted on December 31 last year to the Centre said, "The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of Rs 8 lakh or less may be retained. In other words only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation." It said that the definition of 'family' and income would remain the same as those in the officer memorandum dated January 17, 2019. The panel recommended, "EWS may, however exclude, irrespective of income, a person whose family has 5 acres of agricultural land and above. The residential asset criteria may altogether be removed." The Centre also said that the Rs 8 lakh income criterion for determining the Economical Weaker Section (EWS) is much more stringent than the one for the OBC creamy layer.