Bowing to the intense pressure from students, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) has scrapped its controversial reservation policy, whereby caste-based quotas were introduced in competitive examinations at the preliminary stage itself.
The decision, taken late on Friday night, comes in the wake of violent agitations by students of the general category and a petition in the Allahabad high court in which the decision was reserved on July 22. The court disapproved of the “hasty changes” made in the policy.
The controversial policy opened the reservation system from the preliminary examinations followed by written and interview tests. Earlier, the general category was opened for the reserved category students scoring high marks at the last stage. This process of reservation at every step had shrunk the opportunities for the unreserved category students. As a result, nearly 70 per cent seats in the second stage were grabbed by students who had applied under reserved category.
Sources said that the decision was taken by the UPPSC after a prolonged meeting held at the headquarters in Allahabad. The chief minister had summoned UPPSC chairman Anil Yadav and member Gurdarshan Singh and had voiced his strong disapproval of the policy.
With the reversal of the controversial policy, the UPPSC has also cancelled the provincial civil service-2011 results which were announced on the basis of newly-introduced three-tier reservation system which proposed caste-based quotas from the preliminary exams stage.
According to sources, the UPPSC will now release the results once again on the basis of old reservation system and then proceed with the interviews of the candidates. The decision has come as a major relief for the thousands of aspirants and their parents who have been protesting against the new reservation system ever since the results were announced.
Meanwhile, senior Samajwadi Party leader Ranjana Bajpai told reporters in Allahabad that Samajwadi president Mulayam Singh Yadav had assured her that the police cases lodged against students during the anti-reservation stir in Allahabad would be withdrawn.