The Congress MLAs on Thursday met Odisha governor Raghubar Das and sought his urgent intervention to implement 38.75 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes-Scheuduled Tribes (SC-ST) and a 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes-Socially and Economically Backward classes(OBC-SEBC) students in technical courses. They demanded that the ongoing counselling for MBBS should be stopped.

The Congress MLAs raised the issue of injustice being faced by the students belonging to the other backward classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the state Assembly. Later, they marched to Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum to the governor.

“These groups collectively comprise 94 per cent of the state’s population, with SC-ST forming 40 per cent and OBC constituting 54 per cent. Unfortunately, despite their significant demographic representations, they continue to suffer from inequalities in access to higher education and job opportunities due to the reservation policy,” said Congress Legislature party leader Ram Chandra Kadam.

In the memorandum, the Congress said: “In employment, the quota stands at 22.5 per cent for STs, 16.25 per cent for SCs and 11.25 per cent for OBCs. However, in higher education, particularly in the technical courses such as MBBS and Engineering, STs received only 12 per cent, SCs eight per cent and OBCs have no reservation in education.”

The MLAs said due to this biased reservation policy, hundreds of students from the OBCs, SC and ST categories are being denied their constitutional rights to pursue higher education each year.