Mumbai: 83%-93% seats reserved this year after two new quotas for Marathas and EWS get effective

As per Hindustan Times report, this means 83% to 93% of seats at most non- minority institutes will be reserved, and not open to students from the general category. As it is, the cut-off marks to get into any top junior college in Mumbai are high , and the number of reserved seats is only likely to further increase the competition.

As per the news report, non-minority junior colleges in the state reserve 52% of their seats for students from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Nomadic Tribes (NT); and 5% of their seats are reserved for the management quota at present.

In few colleges where schools are attached, in such institutions 10% is reserved for in-house students additionally.

"Now, with the additional 16% quota for Marathas and 10% for economically backward students, reservations in these colleges would go up to 83%," reported Hindustan Times.

Vaishali Bafna, from the System Correcting Movement (SYSCOM), a Pune-based think-tank, feels that the state government must scrap in-house quotas in the online admission process.

“With all these reservations in place, there are hardly any seats left for students who are not eligible under any reservation. In a report we submitted to the government, we asked them to scrap other quotas too, such as sports, cultural and those extended to project-affected persons, which are in addition to all these quotas,” Bafna told Hindustan Times.

The state education department said that despite quotas there will be enough seats for students.

“We looked at the number of students who applied for admissions in the past, and found there are enough seats vacant after the various quotas,” said an official from the state education department, not wishing to be named, to the Hindustan Times.