In a recent notification by the Department of Personnel and Training, Caste Certificates along with Residential Certificates are to be issued to school children in either class V or class VIII, by the respective State Governments. This is done with the motive of alleviating the distress caused due to simultaneously filling out last minute applications for ensuring reservation benefits, and at the same time, filling out admission form for educational institutes.
Certificates need to be produced by SC, ST and other candidates who want to apply for other reserved seats in the governmental institutions of higher learning, such as domicile applicants. According to a Department of Personnel and Training official, the states are provided with a set of FAQs and instructions, put out on the department’s website to assist them in the process. It instructs to provide SC/ST students with both caste and domicile certificates while other students will just be receiving the domicile, with the option given to states to select in which class (V or VIII) they want to give it. It also adds that the responsibility of collecting an applicant’s documents and submission of the same to the state authority will be upon the Headmaster of the school.
In case of rejection, students will be provided with sound justification and also given provision to appeal against the rejection. Before issuance, a good round of verification by the officials responsible will be carried out before handing over the certificates, but all within a 2 month period. While issuing, student’s details maybe linked to their Adhaar card number as a security measure. This initiative comes as a help to those students who ultimately fell prey to brokers when in need of certificates urgently, generally after their class XII exams, informed Surendra Singh, a PhD student in Delhi University and president of the Youth for Social Justice, who is himself linked to the reservation cause.
Source: http://goo.gl/QolGJD
