Gujarat govt suspends 10 pc EBC quota

In a dramatic about turn, the Gujarat government has suspended the implementation of the 10 per cent reservation in educational institutions and government jobs for Economically Backward Classes (EBC) brought into effect by an Ordinance passed on May 1 this year.

A notification was issued to this effect late in the evening on Friday by the General Administration Department (GAD) directing all government departments to refrain from providing jobs or school admissions to children of people belonging to EBC category. It, however, advised not to cancel the school admission given so far on the EBC quota till further orders.

The decision to give 10 per cent reservation to the upper caste people whose family income was less than Rs six lakh per annum was taken by the previous Anandiben Patel government earlier this year in a bid to end the stalemate over the Patidar community demand for OBC reservation benefits. Both the Gujarat High Court and a division bench of the Supreme Court had disapproved the move to be unconstitutional and the matter was pending before the larger bench of the apex court.

Strongly reacting to the government’s retracing its earlier step, the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly Shankarsinh Vaghela and AICC spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said the suspension of the order was inevitable as the government had taken the decision only to “fool and mislead” the people knowing well that it would not stand the test of law since the constitution did not provide for reservation on economic criteria. The Patel quota stir leaders Hardik Patel and Atul Patel had rejected the EBC quota announcement as a “lollipop” offer to the Patels.