Odisha Cabinet approves proposal of reservation for govt high school students for admission to engineering and medical colleges

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], December 28 : Odisha Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal related to the reservation for students of government high schools for admission to engineering and medical colleges. This will be applicable from the next academic year onwards.
The Odisha government in an official statement said that this decision will provide confidence to meritorious students of government schools and will help them in fulfilling their dreams to become doctors and engineers.
"After the introduction of centralized exams like National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for medical and engineering courses, it is observed that the number of meritorious students from government high schools and colleges in Odisha who are eligible for admission in these institutions has been coming down over the years. This is not due to the lack of meritorious students but a deeper divide in access to coaching classes which is missing in rural areas," the government said.

"It is a fact that these centralized competitive exams require special skill sets which are imparted mainly through the coaching centers and online coaching classes. Due to such centers being limited to mostly urban pockets and the high economic cost of access to such facilities, thousands of meritorious students from the government school system are at a disadvantage and therefore, fare lower than their potential in the entrance exams. This is unfair competition for the vast majority of children in Odisha," it said.
So, in order "to correct this imbalance and provide confidence to meritorious students of government schools, to help them fulfill their dreams to become doctors and engineers, the state government has decided to provide reservation to eligible government school and college students of Odisha in medical and engineering colleges admissions in the state. This will be applicable from the next academic year onwards."

To finalize the modalities of implementation of the above in-principle decision, a high powered committee headed by Retired Judge of the Hon'ble High Court, will be constituted with eminent persons including educationists as members. The Committee will be mandated to submit the report within three months so that the recommendations can be implemented from the next academic year.
In the same cabinet meeting, a decision was also taken on the "Mandatory Submission of Annual Property List for Elected Representatives and Government Employees."

"The State Government is committed to providing a transparent and corruption-free administration to the people of Odisha. It has also taken various important steps in this direction. In a democracy, accountability is of paramount importance. Our fight against corruption will be successful in eliminating many of our maladies in society like inequality, injustice and poverty," the government stated.

"Our uncompromising fight against corruption has brought laurels for the state. Hence, going a step ahead, the State Government today decides that submission of property statement will now be made mandatory for all the public representatives starting from the level of Sarpanchs to the Chief Minister, and the most important part of the decision is to make it available in the public domain," it added.
Similarly, it has also been made mandatory for all the government servants starting from the entry-level to the Chief Secretary level to submit their property lists along with its availability in the public domain. A copy of the Property Statement of public representatives and the Government servants will be sent to the Lokayukta every year, the government said.