Bhubaneswar: The state govt is planning 11.25% reservation for students from Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) and doubling the existing reservation for SC and ST students for admission to medical, engineering and professional courses from the 2026-27 academic session.The Skill Development and Technical Education (SDTE) department’s policy planning committee held a meeting recently under the chairmanship of SDTE commissioner-cum-secretary Bhupinder Singh Poonia, where the committee members unanimously recommended increasing of reservation for ST and SC students and the introduction of reservation for SEBC students in the above mentioned courses. As per the proposal, 11.25% of SEBC reservation will be introduced across all the technical, professional and medical courses in the next session after govt approval. The committee will now submit these recommendations to the govt for approval. The move, members said, is aimed at bringing uniformity in reservation in education, at par with the higher education department.MLA Santosh Khatua, who is a member of the committee, said the panel members approved 11.25% reservation for SEBC students and increasing total SC/ST reservation in technical and medical education to 38.5% from the existing 20%.Last year, after the state govt approved 11.25% SEBC reservation in higher education institutions in the 2025-26 session to align with the National Education Policy-2020, there were demands from various quarters for similar reservation in professional and technical courses.Currently, in engineering and professional course admissions in the state, vertical reservations are meant for SC, ST, OBC and economically weaker section (EWS) categories, while horizontal reservations are for ex-servicemen, women, persons with disabilities (PwDs), students from govt schools, orphans enrolled in govt’s green passage scheme and green card holders.The SDTE department now provides 8% and 12% reservation to SC and ST students, respectively, for admission to BTech, MBA, MCA, MTech, MArch and MPlan courses. The reservation is 16.25% and 22.5% for SC and ST students, respectively, for admission to diploma engineering courses and the post diploma in industrial safety (PDIS) course.“The committee approved and recommended to the govt increasing the reservation for SC students to 16.25% and that of ST students to 22.5% in all the courses, while that in the case of students opting for diploma and PDIS courses remains the same,” BPUT vice-chancellor Amiya Kumar Rath said.Likewise, for admission to medical, dental, pharmacy, Ayurveda and homeopathy courses, the health department offers 8% and 12% reservation to SC and ST students, respectively. The percentage is 16.25% and 22.5% in the case of SC and ST students, respectively, in the nursing courses. The committee recommended increasing the reservation to 16.25% for SC and 22.5% for ST candidates in all five courses under the medical stream, while that for nursing remains the same.
