‘Give 1% quota to 5 communities in Rajasthan University’

JAIPUR: The government has directed the Rajasthan University (RU) to provide 1% reservation under the Most Backward Classes to Gujjars and four other communities for admission in the university.
A circular has been issued to the RU vice-chancellor by the higher education department on Tuesday. The vice-chancellor is yet to sign the orders.

At present, RU, including its constituent colleges, has 27,000 seats and after the implementation of this order 270 seats will be reserved for the MBC.

According to a source “We have received the circular and VC will approve it very soon then the benefit will be provided to the mentioned communities very soon. We are bound to follow the orders of the government and been working towards this.”

Gujjars have been demanding a sub-categorization of the OBC and 5% reservation within the OBC quota. To keep the communities happy they were given 1% additional reservation under the Most Backward Class (MBC) category separately. The MBC category includes five castes along with Gujjars - Banjara, Gadia-Lohar, Raika and Gadariya.

All the five communities are still in Other Backward Classes (OBC) being a part of 21% reservation as well. Rajasthan government had given 5% reservation earlier within the OBC category while increasing the category limit to 26%. However, the order was struck down by the high court three times as it was surpassing the 50% limit of reservation of Supreme Court.