The reservation criteria for persons with disability has been enhanced from 3 percent to 5 percent from a committee set up by Panjab University. The committee has approved the increased percentage of reserved seats and the decision will be so implemented from the new session next year, i.e, from session 2018-2019. The reservation has been increased to comply with the provisions of the Persons with the Disabilities Act.
Reduction of General Quota Seats
The effect of increased seats for persons with disability will result in the reduction of seats for general category. As per the latest changes, the seats of general category will reduce to 53.5 percent from existing 55.5 percent. The amendments would thus prove to be disadvantageous for the general category students.
Reservation Rules in Details
The committee organized by PU has clarified that the reservation for seats will have a horizontal reservation. This means that 1 percent each will be reserved for different categories falling under disability category. The different subcategories that come under disability quota are a physical disability, mental behavior, intellectual disability, disability caused due to chronic neurological conditions and a blood disorder and multiple disability categories.
It should also be noted that if the 5 percent reservation of seat comes to 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent than it shall be treated as 1 seat. If the number of seats are divisible by 5 after calculating the seats as per the five percent quota then there would be an equal distribution of seats in each sub-category. And if any seat is still left after the division of seats to different sub-categories then it should be distributed on the basis of inter se merit among all the 5 subcategories. And if the seats come to be less than 5 then these shall be distributed among all the 5 categories on the basis of inter se merit. However, if the seats remain vacant, those seats would be added up to the sanctioned strength of seats of General Category.
Other Benefits
For the calculation of merit, there is also a relaxation of 5 marks for the differently abled candidates. There is also an age relaxation of 5 years for them where the upper age limit is mentioned.